CAT  STORIES. 


BY 
HELEN  JACKSON   (H.  H.), 

AUTHOR    OF  "  RAMONA,"    "NELLY'S   SILVER    MINE,"    "BITS    OF   TALK,"    ETC. 


LETTERS  FROM  A  CAT. 

MAMMY  TITTLEBACK  AND  HER 
FAMILY. 

THE  HUNTER  CATS  OF  CONNORLOA, 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


BOSTON: 

ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 
1886. 


755-107 


LETTERS    FROM    A    CAT. 


LETTERS  FROM  A  CAT. 

PUBLISHED    BY    HER    MISTRESS 

JTot  tlje  ^Benefit  of  all  Cats 

AND 

THE    AMUSEMENT    OF    LITTLE    CHILDREN. 
BY    H.    H., 

AUTHOR   OF   "BITS  OF   TALK    FOR   YOUNG   FOLKS,"    "BITS  OF  TALK   ABOUT   HCME 
MATTERS,"    "  BITS   OF   TRAVEL,"    ETC. 


WITH  SEVENTEEN  ILLUSTRATIONS  BY  ADDIE   LEDYARD. 


BOS.TON: 

ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 
1886, 


Copyright,  1879, 
BY  ROBERTS  BROTHERS. 


INTRODUCTION 


DEAR  CHILDREN  : 

DO  not  feel  wholly 
sure  that  my  Pussy 
wrote  these  letters 
herself.  They  al 
ways  came  inside 
the  letters  written 
to  me  by  my  mamma,  or  other  friends,  and 
I  never  caught  Pussy  writing  at  any  time 
when  I  was  at  home  ;  but  the  printing 


M61174 


INTRODUCTION. 


was  pretty  bad,  and  they  were  signed  by 
Pussy's  name ;  and  my  mamma  always 
looked  very  mysterious  when  I  asked  about 
them,  as  if  there  were  some  very  great 
secret  about  it  all ;  so  that  until  I  grew 
to  be  a  big  girl,  I  never  doubted  but  that 
Pussy  printed  them  all  alone  by  herself, 
after  dark. 

They  were  written  when  I  was  a  very 
little  girl,  and  was  away  from  home  with 
my  father  on  a  journey.  We  made  this 
journey  in  our  own  carriage,  and  it  was 
one  of  the  pleasantest  things  that  ever 
happened  to  me.  My  clothes  and  my 
father's  were  packed  in  a  little  leather 
valise  which  was  hung  by  straps  under- 


INTRODUCTION. 


neath  the  carriage,  and  went  swinging, 
swinging,  back  and  forth,  as  the  wheels 
went  round.  My  father  and  I  used  to 
walk  up  all  the  steep  hills,  because  old 
Charley,  our  horse,  was  not  very  strong  ; 
and  I  kept  my  eyes  on  that  valise  all 
the  while  I  was  walking  behind  the  car 
riage  ;  it  seemed  to  me  the  most  unsafe 
way  to  carry  a  valise,  and  I  wished  very 
much  that  my  best  dress  had  been  put  in 
a  bundle  that  I  could  carry  in  my  lap. 
This  was  the  only  drawback  on  the  pleas 
ure  of  my  journey,  —  my  fear  that  the 
valise  would  fall  off  when  we  did  not  know 
it,  and  be  left  in  the  road,  and  then  I  should 
not  have  anything  nice  to  wear  when  I 


INTRODUCTION. 


reached  my  aunt's  house.  But  the  valise 
went  through  all  safe,  and  I  had  the  sat 
isfaction  of  wearing  my  best  dress  every 
afternoon  while  I  stayed ;  and  I  was  foolish 
enough  to  think  a  great  deal  of  this. 

On  the  fourth  day  after  our  arrival  came 
a  letter  from  my  mamma,  giving  me  a 
great  many  directions  how  to  behave,  and 
enclosing  this  first  letter  from  Pussy.  I 
carried  both  letters  in  my  apron  pocket 
all  the  time.  They  were  the  first  letters 
I  ever  had  received,  and  I  was  very  proud 
of  them.  I  showed  them  to  everybody, 
and  everybody  laughed  hard  at  Pussy's, 
and  asked  me  if  I  believed  that  Pussy 
printed  it  herself.  I  thought  perhaps  my 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

mamma  held  her  paw,  with  the  pen  in  it, 
as  she  had  sometimes  held  my  hand  for 
me,  and  guided  my  pen  to  write  a  few 
words.  I  asked  papa  to  please  to  ask 
mamma,  in  his  letter,  if  that  were  the  way 
Pussy  did  it ;  but  when  his  next  letter 
from  mamma  came,  he  read  me  this  sen 
tence  out  of  it :  "  Tell  Helen  I  did  not 
hold  Pussy's  paw  to  write  that  letter.'* 
So  then  I  felt  sure  Pussy  did  it  herself; 
and  as  I  told  you,  I  had  grown  up  to  be 
quite  a  big  girl  before  I  began  to  doubt 
it.  You  see  I  thought  my  Pussy  such  a 
wonderful  Pussy  that  nothing  was  too  re 
markable  for  her  to  do.  I  knew  very  well 
that  cats  generally  did  not  know  how  to 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

read  or  write  ;  but  I  thought  there  had 
never  been  such  a  cat  in  the  world  as  this 
Pussy  of  mine.  It  is  a  great  many  years 
since  she  died ;  but  I  can  see  her  before 
me  to-day  as  plainly  as  if  it  were  only 
yesterday  that  I  had  really  seen  her  alive. 
She  was  a  little  kitten  when  I  first  had 
her  ;  but  she  grew  fast,  and  was  very  soon 
bigger  than  I  wanted  her  to  be.  I  wanted 
her  to  stay  little.  Her  fur  was  a  beautiful 
dark  gray  color,  and  there  were  black 
stripes  on  her  sides,  like  the  stripes  on  a 
tiger.  Her  eyes  were  very  big,  and  her 
ears  unusually  long  and  pointed.  This 
made  her  loojt  like  a  fox ;  and  she  was  so 
bright  and  mischievous  that  some  people 


INTR  OD  UCTION.  1 1 

thought  she  must  be  part  fox.  She  used 
to  do  one  thing  that  I  never  heard  of  any 
other  cat's  doing:  she  used  to  play  hide- 
and-seek.  Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  cat's 
playing  hide-and-seek?  And  the  most 
wonderful  part  of  it  was,  that  she  took  it 
up  of  her  own  accord.  As  soon  as  she 
heard  me  shut  the  gate  in  the  yard  at  noon, 
when  school  was  done,  she  would  run  up 
the  stairs  as  hard  as  she  could  go,  and 
take  her  place  at  the  top,  where  she  could 
just  peep  through  the  banisters.  When 
I  opened  the  door,  she  would  give  a  funny 
little  mew,  something  like  the  mew  cats 
make  when  they  call  their  kittens.  Then 
as  soon  as  I  stepped  on  the  first  stair  to 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

come  up  to  her,  she  would  race  away  at 
the  top  of  her  speed,  and  hide  under  a 
bed ;  and  when  I  reached  the  room,  there 
would  be  no  Pussy  to  be  seen.  If  I  called 
her,  she  would  come  out  from  under  the 
bed ;  but  if  I  left  the  room,  and  went  down 
stairs  without  speaking,  in  less  than  a  min 
ute  she  would  fly  back  to  her  post  at  the 
head  of  the  stairs,  and  call  again  with  the 
peculiar  mew.  As  soon  as  I  appeared, 
off  she  would  run,  and  hide  under  the  bed 
as  before.  Sometimes  she  would  do  this 
three  or  four  times ;  and  it  was  a  favorite 
amusement  of  my  mother's  to  exhibit  this 
trick  of  hers  to  strangers.  It  was  odd, 
though  ;  she  never  would  do  it  twice,  when 


INTR  OD  UCTION.  1 3 

she  observed  that  other  people  were  watch 
ing.  When  I  called  her,  and  she  came  out 
from  under  the  bed,  if  there  were  strangers 
looking  on,  she  would  walk  straight  to  me 
in  the  demurest  manner,  as  if  it  were  a 
pure  accident  that  she  happened  to  be 
under  that  bed  ;  and  no  matter  what  I  did 
or  said,  her  frolic  was  over  for  that  day. 
She  used  to  follow  me,  just  like  a  little 
dog,  wherever  I  went.  She  followed  me 
to  school  every  day,  and  we  had  great  diffi 
culty  on  Sundays  to  keep  her  from  follow 
ing  us  to  church.  Once  she  followed  me, 
when  it  made  a  good  many  people  laugh, 
in  spite  of  themselves,  on  an  occasion 
when  it  was  very  improper  for  them  to 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

laugh,  and  they  were  all  feeling  very  sad. 
It  was  at  the  funeral  of  one  of  the  profes 
sors  in  the  college. 

The  professors'  families  all  sat  together  ; 
and  when  the  time  came  for  them  to  walk 
out  of  the  house  and  get  into  the  carriages 
to  go  to  the  graveyard,  they  were  called, 
one  after  the  other,  by  name.  When  it 
came  to  our  turn,  my  father  and  mother 
went  first,  arm-in-arm ;  then  my  sister  and 
I  ;  and  then,  who  should  rise,  very  gravely, 
but  my  Pussy,  who  had  slipped  into  the 
room  after  me,  and  had  not  been  noticed 
in  the  crowd,  With  a  slow  and  deliberate 
gait  she  walked  along,  directly  behind  my 
sister  and  me,  as  if  she  were  the  remaining 


INTR  OD  UCTION.  1 5 

member  of  the  family,  as  indeed  she  was. 
People  began  to  smile,  and  as  we  passed 
through  the  front  door,  and  went  down  the 
steps,  some  of  the  men  and  boys  standing 
there  laughed  out.  I  do  not  wonder ;  for 
it  must  have  been  a  very  comical  sight. 
In  a  second  more,  somebody  sprang  for 
ward  and  snatched  Pussy  up.  Such  a 
scream  as  she  gave  1  and  scratched  his  face 
with  her  claws,  so  that  he  was  glad  to  put 
her  down.  As  soon  as  I  heard  her  voice, 
I  turned  round,  and  called  her  in  a  low 
tone.  She  ran  quickly  to  me,  and  I  picked 
her  up  and  carried  her  in  my  arms  the  rest 
of  the  way.  But  I  saw  even  my  own  papa 
and  mamma  laughing  a  little,  for  just  a 


1 6  INTRODUCTION. 

minute.  That  was  the  only  funeral  Pussy 
ever  attended. 

Pussy  lived  several  years  after  the 
events  which  are  related  in  these 
letters. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  her  fur  grew 
out  again  after  that  terrible  fall  into  the 
soft-soap  barrel.  However,  it  did  grow 
out  at  last,  and  looked  as  well  as  ever. 
Nobody  would  have  known  that  any  thing 
had  been  the  matter  with  her,  except  that 
her  eyes  were  always  weak.  The  edges  of 
them  never  got  quite  well ;  and  poor  Pussy 
used  to  sit  and  wash  them  by  the  hour ; 
sometimes  mewing  and  looking  up  in  my 
face,  with  each  stroke  of  her  paw  on  her 


INTR  OD  UCTION.  1 7 

eyes,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Don't  you  see 
how  sore  my  eyes  are  ?  Why  don't  you 
do  something  for  me  ?  " 

She  was  never  good  for  any  thing  as  a 
mouser  after  that  accident,  nor  for  very 
much  to  play  with.  I  recollect  hearing 
my  mother  say  one  day  to  somebody, — 
"  Pussy  was  spoiled  by  her  experience  in 
the  cradle.  She  would  like  to  be  rocked 
the  rest  of  her  days,  I  do  believe  ;  and  it 
is  too  funny  to  see  her  turn  up  her  nose 
at  tough  beef.  It  was  a  pity  she  ever 
got  a  taste  of  tenderloin  I " 

At  last,  what  with  good  feeding  and 
very  little  exercise,  she  grew  so  fat  that 
she  was  clumsy,  and  so  lazy  that  she  did 


1 8  INTRODUCTION. 

not  want  to  do  any  thing  but  lie  curled  up 
on  a  soft  cushion. 

She  had  outgrown  my  little  chair,  which 
had  a  green  moreen  cushion  in  it,  on 
which  she  had  slept  for  many  a  year,  and 
of  which  I  myself  had  very  little  use, —  she 
was  in  it  so  much  of  the  time.  But  now 
that  this  was  too  tight  for  her,  she  took 
possession  of  the  most  comfortable  places 
she  could  find,  all  over  the  house.  Now  it. 
was  a  sofa,  now  it  was  an  arm-chair,  now  it 
was  the  foot  of  somebody's  bed.  But  wher 
ever  it  happened  to  be,  it  was  sure  to  be 
the  precise  place  where  she  was  in  the  way, 
and  the  poor  thing  was  tipped  headlong 
out  of  chairs,  shoved  hastily  off  sofas,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  19 

driven  off  beds  so  continually,  that  at  last 
she  came  to  understand  that  when  she  saw 
any  person  approaching  the  chair,  sofa,  or 
bed  on  which  she  happened  to  be  lying, 
the  part  of  wisdom  for  her  was  to  move 
away.  And  it  was  very  droll  to  see  the 
injured  and  reproachful  expression  with 
which  she  would  slowly  get  up,  stretch  all 
her  legs,  and  walk  away,  looking  for  her 
next  sleeping-place.  Everybody  in  the 
house,  except  me,  hated  the  sight  of  her; 
and  I  had  many  a  pitched  battle  with  the 
servants  in  her  behalf.  Even  my  mother, 
who  was  the  kindest  human  being  I  ever 
knew,  got  out  of  patience  at  last,  and  said 
to  me  one  day :  — 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

"  Helen,  your  Pussy  has  grown  so  old 
and  so  fat,  she  is  no  comfort  to  herself, 
and  a  great  torment  to  everybody  else. 
I  think  it  would  be  a  mercy  to  kill 
her." 

"  Kill  my  Pussy ! "  I  exclaimed,  and 
burst  out  crying,  so  loud  and  so  hard 
that  I  think  my  mother  was  frightened ; 
for  she  said  quickly  :  — 

"  Never  mind,  dear ;  it  shall  not  be 
done,  unless  it  is  necessary.  You  would 
not  want  Pussy  to  live,  if  she  were  very 
uncomfortable  all  the  time." 

"She  isn't  uncomfortable,"  I  cried; 
"she  is  only  sleepy.  If  people  would 
let  her  alone,  she  would  sleep  all  day. 


INTR  OD  UCTION.  2 1 

It  would  be  awful  to  kill  her.  You  might 
as  well  kill  me ! " 

After  that,  I  kept  a  very  close  eye  on 
Pussy ;  and  I  carried  her  up  to  bed  with 
me  every  night  for  a  long  time. 

But  Pussy's  days  were  numbered. 
One  morning,  before  I  was  up,  my  mamma 
came  into  my  room,  and  sat  down  on  the 
edge  of  my  bed. 

"  Helen,"  she  said,  "  I  have  something 
to  tell  you  which  will  make  you  feel  very 
badly ;  but  I  hope  you  will  be  a  good 
little  girl,  and  not  make  mamma  unhappy 
about  it.  You  know  your  papa  and 
mamma  always  do  what  they  think  is 
the  very  best  thing." 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

11  What  is  it,  mamma  ?  "  I  asked,  feel 
ing  very  much  frightened,  but  never  think 
ing  of  Pussy. 

"  You  will  never  see  your  Pussy  any 
more,"  she  replied.  "  She  is  dead." 

"  Oh,  where  is  she  ?  "  I  cried.  "  What 
killed  her  ?  Won't  she  come  to  life 
again  ?  " 

"  No,"  said  my  mother ;  "  she  is 
drow'ned." 

Then  I  knew  what  had  happened. 

"Who  did  it?"  was  all  I  said. 

"  Cousin  Josiah,"  she  replied  ;  "  and 
he  took  great  care  that  Pussy  did  not 
suffer  at  all.  She  sank  to  the  bottom 
instantly." 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

"  Where  did  he  drown  her  ?  "  I  asked. 

"Down  by  the  mill,  in  Mill  Valley, 
where  the  water  is  very  deep,"  answrered 
my  mother ;  "  we  told  him  to  take  her 
there." 

At  these  words  I  cried  bitterly. 

"  That 's  the  very  place  I  used  to  go 
with  her  to  play,"  I  exclaimed.  "  I  '11  never 
go  near  that  bridge  as  long  as  I  live,  and 
I  '11  never  speak  a  word  to  Cousin  Josiah 
either  —  never  !  " 

My  mother  tried  to  comfort  me,  but 
it  was  of  no  use  ;  my  heart  was  nearly 
broken. 

When  I  went  to  breakfast,  there  sat 
my  cousin  Josiah,  looking  as  unconcerned 


24  INTRODUCTION. 

as  possible,  reading  a  newspaper.  He  was 
a  student  in  the  college,  and  boarded  at  our 
house.  At  the  sight  of  him  all  my  indigna 
tion  and  grief  broke  forth  afresh.  I  began 
to  cry  again ;  and  running  up  to  him,  I 
doubled  up  my  fist  and  shook  it  in  his  face. 

"  I  said  I  'd  never  speak  to  you  as  long 
as  I  lived,"  I  cried ;  "  but  I  will.  You  're 
just  a  murderer,  a  real  murderer ;  that 's 
what  ydu  are!  and  when  you  go  to  be  a 
missionary,  I  hope  the  cannibals  '11  eat 
you !  I  hope  they  '11  eat  you  alive  raw, 
you  mean  old  murderer!" 

"  Helen  Maria  !  "  said  my  father's  voice 
behind  me,  sternly.  "Helen  Maria!  leave 
the  room  this  moment ! " 


INTRODUCTION.  25 

I  went  away  sullenly,  muttering,  "  I 
don't  care,  he  is  a  murderer ;  and  I  hope 
he  '11  be  drowned,  if  he  isn't  eaten !  The 
Bible  says  the  same  measure  ye  mete  shall 
be  meted  to  you  again.  He  ought  to  be 
drowned." 

For  this  sullen  muttering  I  had  to  go 
without  my  breakfast  ;  and  after  break 
fast  was  over,  I  was  made  to  beg  Cousin 
Josiah's  pardon  ;  but  I  did  not  beg  it 
in  my  heart  —  not  a  bit  —  only  with  my 
lips,  just  repeating  the  words  I  was  told 
to  say  ;  and  from  that  time  I  never  spoke 
one  word  to  him,  nor  looked  at  him,  if  I 
could  help  it. 

My  kind  mother  offered  to  get  another 


26  INTRODUCTION. 

kitten  for  me,  but  I  did  not  want  one. 
After  a  while,  my  sister  Ann  had  a  present 
of  a  pretty  little  gray  kitten  ;  but  I  never 
played  with  it,  nor  took  any  notice  of  it 
at  all.  I  was  as  true  to  my  Pussy  as  she 
was  to  me  ;  and  from  that  day  to  this,  I 
have  never  had  another  Pussy  1 


LETTERS    FROM    A    CAT. 


I. 

MY  DEAR  HELEN  : 

That  is  what  your  mother  calls 
you,  I  know,  for  I  jumped  up  on 
her  writing-table  just  now,  and 
looked,  while  she  was  out  of  the 
room ;  and  I  am  sure  I  have  as 
much  right  to  call  you  so  as  she 
has,  for  if  you  were  my  own  little 
kitty,  and  looked  just  like  me,  I 
could  not  love  you  any  more  than 


28  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

I  do.  How  many  good  naps  I 
have  had  in  your  lap !  and  how 
many  nice  bits  of  meat  you  have 
saved  for  me  out  of  your  own  din 
ner  !  Oh,  I  '11  never  let  a  rat,  or  a 
mouse,  touch  any  thing  of  yours  so 
long  as  I  live. 

I  felt  very  unhappy  after  you 
drove  off  yesterday,  and  did  not 
know  what  to  do  with  myself.  I 
went  into  the  barn,  and  thought  I 
would  take  a  nap  on  the  hay,  for 
I  do  think  going  to  sleep  is  one  of 
the  very  best  things  for  people  who 
are  unhappy ;  but  it  seemed  so 
lonely  without  old  Charlie  stamping 
in  his  stall  that  I  could  not  bear  it, 


1  i 


I  felt  very  unhappy  after  you  drove  off  yesterday." 
PAGE  28. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  29 

so  I  went  into  the  garden,  and  lay 
down  under  the  damask  rose-bush, 
and  caught  flies.  There  is  a  kind 
of  fly  round  that  bush  which  I  like 
better  than  any  other  I  ever  ate. 
You  ought  to  see  that  there  is  a 
very  great  difference  between  my 
catching  flies  and  your  doing  it.  I 
have  noticed  that  you  never  eat 
them,  and  I  have  wondered  that 
when  you  were  always  so  kind  to 
me  you  could  be  so  cruel  as  to  kill 
poor  flies  for  nothing :  I  have  often 
wished  that  I  could  speak  to  you 
about  it :  now  that  your  dear  mother 
has  taught  me  to  print,  I  shall  be 
able  to  say  a  great  many  things  to 


30  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

you  which  I  have  often  been  un 
happy  about  because  I  could  not 
make  you  ^understand.  I  am  en 
tirely  discouraged  about  learning  to 
speak  the  English  language,  and  I 
do  not  think  anybody  takes  much 
trouble  to  learn  ours;  so  we  cats 
are  confined  entirely  to  the  society 
of  each  other,  which  prevents  our 
knowing  so  much  as  we  might;  and 
it  is  very  lonely  too,  in  a  place  where 
there  are  so  few  cats  kept  as  in 
Amherst.  If  it  were  not  for  Mrs. 
Hitchcock's  cat,  and  Judge  Dickin 
son's,  I  should  really  forget  how  to 
use  my  tongue.  When  you  are  at 
home  I  do  not  mind  it,  for  although 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  31 

I  cannot  talk  to  you,  I  understand 
every  word  that  you  say  to  me,  and 
we  have  such  good  plays  together 
with  the  red  ball.  That  is  put  away 
now  in  the  bottom  drawer  of  the 
little  workstand  in  the  sitting-room. 
When  your  mother  put  it  in,  she 
turned  round  to  me,  and  said,  "Poor 
pussy,  no  more  good  plays  for  you 
till  Helen  comes  home!'  and  I 
thought  I  should  certainly  cry.  But 
I  think  it  is  very  foolish  to  cry  over 
what  cannot  be  helped,  so  I  pretend 
ed  to  have  got  something  into  my 
left  eye,  and  rubbed  it  with  my  paw. 
It  is  very  seldom  that  I  cry  over 
any  thing,  unless  it  is  "  spilt  milk." 


32  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

I  must  confess,  I  have  often  cried 
when  that  has  happened :  and  it 
always  is  happening  to  cats'  milk. 
They  put  it  into  old  broken  things 
that  tip  over  at  the  least  knock,  and 
then  they  set  them  just  where  they 
are  sure  to  be  most  in  the  way. 
Many's  the  time  Josiah  has  knocked 
over  that  blue  saucer  of  mine,  in  the 
shed,  and  when  you  have  thought 
that  I  had  had  a  nice  breakfast  of 
milk,  I  had  nothing  in  the  world 
but  flies,  which  are  not  good  for 
much  more  than  just  a  little  sort 
of  relish.  I  am  so  glad  of  a 
chance  to  tell  you  about  this, 
because  I  know  when  you  come 


I  hope  you  found  the  horse-chestnuts  which  I  put  in  the  carriage  for  you.     I  had 
a  dreadful  time  climbing  up  over  the  dasher  with  them."  —  PAGE  33. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  33 

home  you  will  get  a  better  dish 
for  me. 

I  hope  you  found  the  horse- 
chestnuts  which  I  put  in  the  bot 
tom  of  the  carriage  for  you.  I 
could  not  think  of  any  thing  else  to 
put  in,  which  would  remind  you  of 
me :  but  I  am  afraid  you  will  never 
think  that  it  was  I  who  put  them 
there,  and  it  will  be  too  bad  if  you 
don't,  for  I  had  a  dreadful  time 
climbing  up  over  the  dasher  with 
them,  and  both  my  jaws  are  quite 
lame  from  stretching  them  so,  to 
carry  the  biggest  ones  I  could  find. 

There  are  three  beautiful  dan 
delions  out  on  the  terrace,  but  I 


34  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

don't  suppose  they  will  keep  till 
you  come  home.  A  man  has  been 
doing  something  to  your  garden,  but 
though  I  watched  him  very  closely 
all  the  time,  I  could  not  make  out 
what  he  was  about  I  am  afraid  it 
is  something  you  will  not  like;  but 
if  I  find  out  more  about  it,  I  will 
tell  you  in  my  next  letter.  Good 
by. 

Your  affectionate         PUSSY. 


II. 

MY  DEAR  HELEN: 

I  do  wish  that  you  and  your 
father  would  turn  around  directly, 
wherever  you  are,  when  you  get  this 
letter,  and  come  home  as  fast  as  you 
can.  If  you  do  not  come  soon  there 
will  be  no  home  left  for  you  to 
come  into.  I  am  so  frightened  and 
excited,  that  my  paws  tremble,  and  I 
have  upset  the  ink  twice,  and  spilled 
so  much  that  there  is  only  a  little 
left  in  the  bottom  of  the  cup,  and 


36  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

it  is  as  thick  as  hasty  pudding;  so 
you  must  excuse  the  looks  of  this 
letter,  and  I  will  tell  you  as  quickly 
as  I  can  about  the  dreadful  state  of 
things  here.  Not  more  than  an 
hour  after  I  finished  my  letter  to 
you,  yesterday,  I  heard  a  great  noise 
in  the  parlor,  and  ran  in  to  see  what 
was  the  matter.  There  was  Mary 
with  her  worst  blue  handkerchief 
tied  over  her  head,  her  washing-day 
gown  on,  and  a  big  hammer  in  her 
hand.  As  soon  as  she  saw  me,  she 
said,  "  There  's  that  cat !  Always 
in  my  way/'  and  threw  a  cricket  at 
me,  and  then  shut  the  parlor  door 
with  a  great  slam.  So  I  ran  out 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  37 

and  listened  under  the  front  win 
dows,  for  I  felt  sure  she  was  in 
some  bad  business  she  did  not  want 
to  have  known.  Such  a  noise  I 
never  heard :  all  the  things  were 
being  moved  ;  and  in  a  few  minutes, 
what  do  you  think  —  out  came  the 
whole  carpet  right  on  my  head!  I 
was  nearly  stifled  with  dust,  and  felt 
as  if  every  bone  in  my  body  must 
be  broken ;  but  I  managed  to  creep 
out  from  under  it,  and  heard  Mary 
say,  "If  there  isn't  that  torment  of 
a  cat  again !  I  wish  to  goodness 
Helen  had  taken  her  along ! " 
Then  I  felt  surer  than  ever  that 
some  mischief  was  on  foot;  and  I 


38  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

ran  out  into  the  garden,  and  climbed 
up  the  old  apple-tree  at  the  foot  of 
the  steps,  and  crawled  out  on  a 
branch,  from  which  I  could  look 
directly  into  the  parlor  windows. 
Oh  !  my  dear  Helen,  you  can  fancy 
how  I  felt,  to  see  all  the  chairs  and 
tables  and  bookshelves  in  a  pile  in 
the  middle  of  the  floor,  the  books 
all  packed  in  big  baskets,  and  Mary 
taking  out  window  after  window  as 
fast  as  she  could.  I  forgot  to  tell 
you  that  your  mother  went  away 
last  night.  I  think  she  has  gone  to 
Hadley  to  make  a  visit,  and  it  looks 
to  me  very  much  as  if  Mary  meant 
to  run  away  with  every  thing  which 


"  I  climbed  up  the  old  apple-tree,  and  crawled  out  on  a  branch  from  which  I  could 
look  directly  into  the  parlor  windows."  —  PAGE  38. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  39 

could  be  moved,  before  she  comes 
back.  After  awhile  that  ugly  Irish 
woman,  who  lives  in  Mr.  Slater's 
house,  came  into  the  back  gate:  you 
know  the  one  I  mean,- -the  one  that 
threw  cold  water  on  me  last  spring. 
When  I  saw  her  coming  I  felt 
sure  that  she  and  Mary  meant 
to  kill  me,  while  you  were  all  away ; 
so  I  jumped  down  out  of  the  tree, 
and  split  my  best  claw  in  my  hurry, 
and  ran  off  into  Baker 's  Grove,  and 
stayed  there  all  the  rest  of  the  day, 
in  dreadful  misery  from  cold  and 
hunger.  There  was  some  snow  in 
the  hollows,  and  I  wet  my  feet,  which 
always  makes  me  feel  wretchedly; 


40  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

and  I  could  not  find  any  thing  to 
eat  except  a  thin  dried-up  old  mole. 
They  are  never  good  in  the  spring. 
Really,  nobody  does  know  what 
hard  lives  we  cats  lead,  even  the 
luckiest  of  us!  After  dark,  I  went 
home;  but  Mary  had  fastened  up 
every  door,  even  the  little  one  into 
the  back  shed.  So  I  had  to  jump 
into  the  cellar  window,  which  is  a 
thing  I  never  like  to  do  since  I  got 
that  bad  sprain  in  my  shoulder  from 
coming  down  on  the  edge  of  a  milk- 
pan.  I  crept  up  to  the  head  of  the 
kitchen  stairs,  as  still  as  a  mouse,  if 
I  'm  any  judge,  and  listened  there 
for  a  long  time,  to  try  and  make 


I  crept  up  to  the  head  of  the  kitchen  stairs,  as  still  as  a  mouse,  if 
I  'm  any  judge,  and  listened."  —  PAGE  40. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  41 

out,  from  Mary's  talk  with  the  Irish 
woman,  what  they  were  planning  to 
do.  But  I  never  could  understand 
Irish,  and  although  I  listened  till  I 
had  cramps  in  all  my  legs,  from 
being  so  long  in  one  position,  I  was 
no  wiser.  Even  the  things  Mary 
said  I  could  not  understand,  and  I 
usually  understand  her  very  easily. 
I  passed  a  very  uncomfortable  night 
in  the  carrot  bin.  As  soon  as  I 
heard  Mary  coming  down  the  cellar 
stairs,  this  morning,  I  hid  in  the 
arch,  and  while  she  was  skimming 
the  milk,  I  slipped  upstairs,  and  ran 
into  the  sitting-room.  Every  thing 
there  is  in  the  same  confusion ;  the 


42  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

carpet  is  gone;  and  the  windows  too, 
and  I  think  some  of  the  chairs  have 
been  carried  away.  All  the  china 
is  in  great  baskets  on  the  pantry 
floor;  and  your  father  and  mother's 
clothes  are  all  taken  out  of  the  nur 
sery  closet,  and  laid  on  chairs.  It 
is  very  dreadful  to  have  to  stand  by 
and  see  all  this,  and  not  be  able  to 
do  any  thing.  I  don't  think  I  ever 
fully  realized  before  the  disadvan 
tage  of  being  only  a  cat.  I  have 
just  been  across  the  street,  and 
talked  it  all  over  with  the  Judge's 
cat,  but  she  is  very  old  and  stupid, 
and  so  taken  up  with  her  six  kittens 
(who  are  the  ugliest  I  ever  saw), 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  43 

that  she  does  not  take  the  least  in 
terest  in  her  neighbors'  affairs.  Mrs. 
Hitchcock  walked  by  the  house  this 
morning,  and  I  ran  out  to  her,  and 
took  her  dress  in  my  teeth  and 
pulled  it,  and  did  all  I  could  to 
make  her  come  in,  but  she  said, 
"  No,  no,  pussy,  I  'm  not  coming 
in  to-day ;  your  mistress  is  not  at 
home/'  I  declare  I  could  have 
cried.  I  sat  down  in  the  middle 
of  the  path,  and  never  stirred  for 
half  an  hour. 

I  heard  your  friend,  Hannah 
Dorrance,  say  yesterday,  that  she 
was  going  to  write  to  you  to-day, 
so  I  shall  run  up  the  hill  now  and 


44  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

carry  my  letter  to  her.  I  think  she 
will  be  astonished  when  she  sees  me, 
for  I  am  very  sure  that  no  other 
cat  in  town  knows  how  to  write. 
Do  come  home  as  soon  as  possible. 
Your  affectionate  PUSSY. 

P.  S.  Two  men  have  just 
driven  up  to  the  front  gate  in  a 
great  cart,  and  they  are  putting  all 
the  carpets  into  it.  Oh  dear,  oh 
dear,  if  I  only  knew  what  to  do ! 
And  I  just  heard  Mary  say  to 
them,  "  Be  as  quick  as  you  can,  for  I 
want  to  get  through  with  this  busi 
ness  before  the  folks  come  back/ 


III. 

MY  DEAR   HELEN: 

I  am  too  stiff  and  sore  from  a 
terrible  fall  I  have  had,  to  write 
more  than  one  line;  but  I  must  let 
you  know  that  my  fright  was  very 
silly,  and  I  am  very  much  mortified 
about  it.  The  house  and  the  things 
are  all  safe ;  your  mother  has  come 
home ;  and  I  will  write,  and  tell 
you  all,  just  as  soon  as  I  can  use 
my  pen  without  great  pain. 


46  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

Some  new  people  have  come 
to  live  in  the  Nelson  house;  very 
nice  people,  I  think,  for  they  keep 
their  milk  in  yellow  crockery  pans. 
They  have  brought  with  them  a 
splendid  black  cat  whose  name  is 
Caesar,  and  everybody  is  talking 
about  him.  He  has  the  handsom 
est  whiskers  I  ever  saw.  I  do  hope 
I  shall  be  well  enough  to  see  him 
before  long,  but  I  wouldn't  have 
him  see  me  now  for  any  thing. 

Your  affectionate        PUSSY. 


IV. 

MY  DEAR  HELEN: 

There  is  one  thing  that  cats 
don't  like  any  better  than  men  and 
women  do,  and  that  is  to  make  fools 
of  themselves.  But  a  precious  fool 
I  made  of  myself  when  I  wrote  you 
that  long  letter  about  Mary's  mov 
ing  out  all  the  furniture,  and  taking 
the  house  down.  It  is  very  mortify 
ing  to  have  to  tell  you  how  it  all 
turned  out,  but  I  know  you  love  me 


48  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

enough  to  be  sorry  that  I  should 
have  had  such  a  terrible  fright  for 
nothing. 

It  went  on  from  bad  to  worse 
for  three  more  days  after  I  wrote 
you.  Your  mother  did  not  come 
home;  and  the  awful  Irishwoman 
was  here  all  the  time.  I  did  not 
dare  to  go  near  the  house,  and  I  do 
assure  you  I  nearly  starved :  I  used 
to  lie  under  the  rose-bushes,  and 
watch  as  well  as  I  could  what  was 
going  on :  now  and  then  I  caught 
a  rat  in  the  barn,  but  that  sort  of 
hearty  food  never  has  agreed  with 
me  since  I  came  to  live  with  you, 
and  became  accustomed  to  a  lighter 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  49 

diet.  By  the  third  day  I  felt  too 
weak  and  sick  to  stir :  so  I  lay  still 
all  day  on  the  straw  in  Charlie's 
stall ;  and  I  really  thought,  between 
the  hunger  and  the  anxiety,  that  I 
should  die.  About  noon  I  heard 
Mary  say  in  the  shed,  "I  do  believe 
that  everlasting  cat  has  taken  herself 
off:  it's  a  good  riddance  anyhow, 
but  I  should  like  to  know  what  has 
become  of  the  plaguy  thing ! " 

I  trembled  all  over,  for  if  she 
had  come  into  the  barn  I  know  one 
kick  from  her  heavy  foot  would 
have  killed  me,  and  I  was  quite  too 
weak  to  run  away.  Towards  night 
I  heard  your  dear  mother's  voice 


50  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

calling,    "  Poor    pussy,    why,    poor 
pussy,  where  are  you  ? " 

I  assure  you,  my  dear  Helen, 
people  are  very  much  mistaken  who 
say,  as  I  have  often  overheard  them, 
that  cats  have  no  feeling.  If  they 
could  only  know  how  I  felt  at  that 
moment,  they  would  change  their 
minds.  I  was  almost  too  glad  to 
make  a  sound.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  my  feet  were  fastened  to  the 
floor,  and  that  I  never  could  get  to 
her.  She  took  me  up  in  her  arms, 
and  carried  me  through  the  kitchen 
into  the  sitting-room.  Mary  was 
frying  cakes  in  the  kitchen,  and  as 
your  mother  passed  by  the  stove 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  51 

she  said  in  her  sweet  voice,  "  You 
see  I've  found  poor  pussy,  Mary/' 
"  Humph,"  said  Mary,  "  I  never 
thought  but  that  she'd  be  found 
fast  enough  when  she  wanted  to 
be ! "  I  knew  that  this  was  a  lie, 
because  I  had  heard  what  she  said 
in  the  shed.  I  do  wish  I  knew 
what  makes  her  hate  me  so :  I 
only  wish  she  knew  how  I  hate 
her.  I  really  think  I  shall  gnaw 
her  stockings  and  shoes  some  night. 
It  would  not  be  any  more  than  fair; 
and  she  would  never  suspect  me, 
there  are  so  many  mice  in  her  room, 
for  I  never  touch  one  that  I  think 
belongs  in  her  closet. 


52  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

The  sitting-room  was  all  in 
most  beautiful  order,  —  a  smooth 
white  something,  like  the  side  of  a 
basket,  over  the  whole  floor,  a  beau 
tiful  paper  curtain,  pink  and  white, 
over  the  fire-place,  and  white  muslin 
curtains  at  the  windows.  I  stood 
perfectly  still  in  the  middle  of  the 
room  for  some  time.  I  was  too  sur 
prised  to  stir.  Oh,  how  I  wished 
that  I  could  speak,  and  tell  your 
dear  mother  all  that  had  happened, 
and  how  the  room  had  looked  three 
days  before.  Presently  she  said, 
"  Poor  pussy,  I  know  you  are  al 
most  starved,  aren't  you  ? "  and  I 
said  "  Yes,"  as  plainly  as  I  could 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  53 

mew  it  Then  she  brought  me  a 
big  soup-plate  full  of  thick  cream, 
and  some  of  the  most  delicious  cold 
hash  I  ever  tasted;  and  after  I  had 
eaten  it  all,  she  took  me  in  her  lap, 
and  said,  "  Poor  pussy,  we  miss 
little  Helen,  don't  we?"  and  she 
held  me  in  her  lap  till  bed-time. 
Then  she  let  me  sleep  on  the  foot 
of  her  bed:  it  was  one  of  the  hap 
piest'  nights  of  my  life.  In  the 
middle  of  the  night  I  was  up  for 
a  while,  and  caught  the  smallest 
mouse  I  ever  saw  out  of  the  nest. 
Such  little  ones  are  very  tender. 

In     the     morning    I    had     my 
breakfast   with    her    in    the    dining- 


54  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

room,  which  looks  just  as  nice  as 
the  sitting-room.  After  breakfast 
Mrs.  Hitchcock  came  in,  and  your 
mother  said:  "Only  think,  how  for 
tunate  I  am;  Mary  did  all  the 
house-cleaning  while  I  was  away. 
Every  room  is  in  perfect  order ; 
all  the  wroollen  clothes  are  put 
away  for  the  summer.  Poor  pussy, 
here,  was  frightened  out  of  the 
house,  and  I  suppose  we  should 
all  have  been  if  we  had  been  at 
home/' 

Can  you  imagine  how  ashamed 
I  felt  ?  I  ran  under  the  table  and 
did  not  come  out  again  until  after 
Mrs.  Hitchcock  had  gone.  But  now 


1  Can  you  imagine  how  ashamed  I  felt  ?  I  ran  under  the  table  and  did  not  come 
out  again  until  after  Mrs.  Hitchcock  had  gone."  —  PAGE  54. 


I  knew  that  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost  if  I  meant  to  catch  that  robin,  so  I 
ran  with  all  my  might  and  tried  to  jump  through."  —  PAGE  55. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  55 

comes  the  saddest  part  of  my  story. 
Soon  after  this,  as  I  was  looking 
out  of  the  window,  I  saw  the  fat 
test,  most  tempting  robin  on  the 
ground  under  the  cherry-tree:  .the 
windows  did  not  look  as  if  they 
had  any  glass  in  them,  and  I  took 
it  for  granted  that  it  had  all  been 
taken  out  and  put  away  upstairs, 
with  the  andirons  and  the  carpets, 
for  next  winter.  I  knew  that  there 
was  no  time  to  be  lost  if  I  meant 
to  catch  that  robin,  so  I  ran  with 
all  my  might  and  tried  to  jump 
through.  Oh,  my  dear  Helen,  I  do 
not  believe  you  ever  had  such  a 
bump :  I  fell  back  nearly  into  the 


56  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

middle  of  the  room ;  and  it  seemed 
to  me  that  I  turned  completely 
over  at  least  six  times.  The  blood 
streamed  out  of  my  nose,  and  I  cut 
my  right  ear  very  badly  against  one 
of  the  castors  of  the  table.  I  could 
not  see  nor  hear  any  thing  for  some 
minutes.  When  I  came  to  myself, 
I  found  your  dear  mother  holding 
me,  'and  wiping  my  face  with  her 
own  nice  handkerchief  wet  in  cold 
water.  My  right  fore-paw  was  badly 
bruised,  and  that  troubles  me  very 
much  about  washing  my  face,  and 
about  writing.  But  the  worst  of  all 
is  the  condition  of  my  nose.  Every 
body  laughs  who  sees  me,  and  I  do 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  57 

not  blame  them ;  it  is  twice  as  large 
as  it  used  to  be,  and  I  begin  to  be 
seriously  afraid  it  will  never  return 
to  its  old  shape.  This  will  be  a 
dreadful  affliction :  for  who  does  not 
know  that  the  nose  is  the  chief 
beauty  of  a  cat's  face  ?  I  have  got 
very  tired  of  hearing  the  story  of 
my  fall  told  to  all  the  people  who 
come  in.  They  laugh  as  if  they 
would  kill  themselves  at  it,  espe 
cially  when  I  do  not  manage  to  get 
under  the  table  before  they  look  to 
see  how  my  nose  is. 

Except  for  this  I  should  have 
written  to  you  before,  and  would 
write  more  now,  but  my  paw  aches 


58  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

badly,  and  one  of  my  eyes  is  nearly 
closed  from  the  swelling  of  my 
nose :  so  I  must  say  good-by. 

Your  affectionate         PUSSY. 

P.  S.  I  told  you  about  Caesar, 
did  I  not,  in  my  last  letter  ?  Of 
course  I  do  not  venture  out  of  the 
house  in  my  present  plight,  so  I 
have  not  seen  him  except  from  the 
window. 


V. 

MY  DEAR  HELEN: 

I  am  sure  you  must  have  won 
dered  why  I  have  not  written  to 
you  for  the  last  two  weeks,  but 
when  you  hear  what  I  have  been 
through,  you  will  only  wonder  that 
I  am  alive  to  write  to  you  at  all.  I 
was  very  glad  to  hear  your  mother 
say,  yesterday,  that  she  had  not  writ 
ten  to  you  about  what  had  happened 
to  me,  because  it  would  make  you 


60  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

so  unhappy.  But  now  that  it  is  all 
over,  and  I  am  in  a  fair  way  to  be 
soon  as  well  as  ever,  I  think  you 
will  like  to  hear  the  whole  story. 

In  my  last  letter  I  told  you 
about  the  new  black  cat,  Caesar, 
who  had  come  to  live  in  the  Nelson 
house,  and  how  anxious  I  was  to 
know  him.  As  soon  as  my  nose 
was  fit  to  be  seen,  Judge  Dickin 
son's  cat,  who  is  a  good,  hospitable 
old  soul,  in  spite  of  her  stupidity, 
invited  me  to  tea,  and  asked  him 
too.  All  the  other  cats  were  asked 
to  come  later  in  the  evening,  and  we 
had  a  grand  frolic,  hunting  rats 
in  the  Judge's  great  barn.  Caesar 


When  there  suddenly  came  down  on  us  a  whole  pailful  of  water. 

PAGE6I. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  61 

is  certainly  the  handsomest  and  most 
gentlemanly  cat  I  ever  saw.  He 
paid  me  great  attention  :  in  fact,  so 
much,  that  one  of  those  miserable 
half-starved  cats  from  Mill  Valley 
grew  so  jealous  that  she  flew  at  me 
and  bit  my  ear  till  it  bled,  which 
broke  up  the  party.  But  Caesar 
went  home  with  me,  so  I  did  not 
care ;  then  we  sat  and  talked  a  long 
time  under  the  nursery  window.  I 
was  so  much  occupied  in  what  he 
was  saying,  that  I  did  not  hear 
Mary  open  the  window  overhead, 
and  was  therefore  terribly  frightened 
when  there  suddenly  came  down  on 
us  a  whole  pailful  of  water.  I  was 


62  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

so  startled  that  I  lost  all  presence  of 
mind ;  and  without  bidding  him 
good-night,  I  jumped  directly  into 
the  cellar  window  by  which  we  were 
sitting.  Oh,  my  dear  Helen,  I  can 
never  give  you  any  idea  of  what  fol 
lowed.  Instead  of  coming  down  as 
I  expected  to  on  the  cabbages,  which 
were  just  under  that  window  the 
last  time  I  was  in  the  cellar,  I  found 
myself  sinking,  sinking,  into  some 
horrible  soft,  slimy,  sticky  substance, 
which  in  an  instant  more  would 
have  closed  over  my  head,  and  suffo 
cated  me ;  but,  fortunately,  as  I  sank, 
I  felt  something  hard  at  one  side, 
and  making  a  great  effort,  I  caught 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  63 

on  it  with  my  claws.  It  proved  to 
be  the  side  of  a  barrel,  and  I  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  one  paw  over  the 
edge  of  it  There  I  hung,  growing 
weaker  and  weaker  every  minute, 
with  this  frightful  stuff  running  into 
my  eyes  and  ears,  and  choking  me 
with  its  bad  smell.  I  mewed  as 
loud  as  I  could,  which  was  not  very 
loud,  for  whenever  I  opened  my 
mouth  the  stuff  trickled  into  it 
off  my  whiskers;  but  I  called 
to  Caesar,  who  stood  in  great 
distress  at  the  window,  and  ex 
plained  to  him,  as  well  as  I  could, 
what  had  happened  to  me,  and 
begged  him  to  call  as  loudly  as  pos- 


64  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

sible;  for  if  somebody  did  not  come 
very  soon,  and  take  me  out,  I  should 
certainly  die.  He  insisted,  at  first, 
on  jumping  down  to  help  me  him 
self  ;  but  I  told  him  that  would  be 
the  most  foolish  thing  he  could  do ; 
if  he  did,  we  should  certainly  both 
be  drowned.  So  he  began  to  mew 
at  the  top  of  his  voice,  and  between 
his  mewing  and  mine,  there  was 
noise  enough  for  a  few  minutes; 
then  windows  began  to  open,  and  I 
heard  your  grandfather  swearing 
and  throwing  out  a  stick  of  wood 
at  Caesar;  fortunately  he  was  so 
near  the  house  that  it  did  not  hit 
him.  At  last  your  grandfather 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  65 

came  downstairs,  and  opened  the 
back  door ;  and  Caesar  was  so  fright 
ened  that  he  ran  away,  for  which  I 
have  never  thought  so  well  of  him 
since,  though  we  are  still  very  good 
friends.  When  I  heard  him  run 
ning  off,  and  calling  back  to  me, 
from  a  distance,  that  he  was  so  sorry 
he  could  not  help  me,  my  courage 
began  to  fail,  and  in  a  moment  more, 
I  should  have  let  go  of  the  edge  of 
the  barrel,  and  sunk  to  the  bottom ; 
but  luckily  your  grandfather  noticed 
that  there  was  something  very  strange 
about  my  mewing,  and  opened  the 
door  at  the  head  of  the  cellar 
stairs,  saying,  "I  do  believe  the  cat 


66  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

is  in  some  trouble  down  here/' 
Then  I  made  a  great  effort  and 
mewed  still  more  piteously.  How 
I  wished  I  could  call  out  and  say, 
"Yes,  indeed,  I  am;  drowning  to 
death,  in  I  'm  sure  I  don't  know 
what,  but  something  a  great  deal 
worse  than  water !"  However,  he 
understood  me  as  it  was,  and  came 
down  with  a  lamp.  As  soon  as  he 
saw  me,  he  set  the  lamp  down  on 
the  cellar  bottom,  and  laughed  so 
that  he  could  hardly  move.  I 
thought  this  was  the  most  cruel 
thing  I  ever  heard  of.  If  I  had 
not  been,  as  it  were,  at  death's  door, 
I  should  have  laughed  at  him,  too, 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  67 

for  even  with  my  eyes  full  of  that 
dreadful  stuff,  I  could  see  that  he 
looked  very  funny  in  his  red  night 
cap,  and  without  his  teeth.  He 
called  out  to  Mary,  and  your  mother, 
who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  stairs, 
"  Come  down,  come  down ;  here's 
the  cat  in  the  soft-soap  barrel !"  and 
then  he  laughed  again,  and  they 
both  came  down  the  stairs  laughing, 
even  your  dear  kind  mother,  who  I 
never  could  have  believed  would 
laugh  at  any  one  in  such  trouble. 
They  did  not  seem  to  know  what 
to  do  at  first;  nobody  wanted  to 
touch  me ;  and  I  ,  began  to  be 
afraid  I  should  drown  while  they 


68  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

stood  looking  at  me,  for  I  knew 
much  better  than  they  could  how 
weak  I  was  from  holding  on  to 
the  edge  of  the  barrel  so  long. 
At  last  your  grandfather  swore  that 
oath  of  his,-  -you  know  the  one  I 
mean,  the  one  he  always  swears 
when  he  is  very  sorry  for  anybody, 
-  and  lifted  me  out  by  the  nape  of 
my  neck,  holding  me  as  far  off  from 
him  as  he  could,  for  the  soft  soap 
ran  off  my  legs  and  tail  in  streams. 
He  carried  me  up  into  the  kitchen, 
and  put  me  clown  in  the  middle  of 
the  floor,  and  then  they  all  stood 
round  me,  and  laughed  again,  so 
loud  that  they  waked  up  the  cook, 


"  He  lifted  me  out  by  the  nape  of  my  neck,  holding  me  as  far  off 
from  him  as  he  could."  —  PAGE  68. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  69 

who  came  running  out  of  her  bed 
room  with  her  tin  candlestick  and  a 
chair  in  her  hand,  thinking  that  rob 
bers  were  breaking  in.  At  last  your 
dear  mother  said,  "  Poor  pussy,  it  is 
too  bad  to  laugh  at  you,  when  you 
are  in  such  pain"  (I  had  been  think 
ing  so  for  some  time).  "  Mary, 
bring  the  small  washtub.  The  only 
thing  we  can  do  is  to  wash  her." 

When  I  heard  this,  I  almost 
wished  they  had  left  me  to  drown 
in  the  soft  soap  ;  for  if  there  is  any 
thing  of  which  I  have  a  mortal 
dread,  it  is  water.  However,  I  was 
too  weak  to  resist ;  and  they  plunged 
me  in  all  over,  into  the  tub  full  of  ice- 


70  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

cold  water,  and  Mary  began  to  rub 
me  with  her  great  rough  hands,  which, 
I  assure  you,  are  very  different  from 
yours  and  your  mother's.  Then 
they  all  laughed  again  to  see  the 
white  lather  it  made  ;  in  two  min 
utes  the  whole  tub  was  as  white  as 
the  water  under  the  mill-wheel  that 
you  and  I  have  so  often  been  together 
to  see.  You  can  imagine  how  my 
eyes  smarted.  I  burnt  my  paws 
once  in  getting  a  piece  of  beefsteak 
out  of  the  coals  where  it  had  fallen 
off  the  gridiron,  but  the  pain  of  that 
was  nothing  to  this.  You  will 
hardly  believe  me  when  I  tell  you 
that  they  had  to  empty  the  tub  and 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  71 

fill  it  again  ten  times  before  the  soap 
was  all  washed  out  of  my  fur.  By 
that  time  I  was  so  cold  and  ex 
hausted,  that  I  could  not  move,  and 
they  began  to  think  I  should  die. 
But  your  mother  rolled  me  up  in 
one  of  your  old  flannel  petticoats, 
and  made  a  nice  bed  for  me  behind 
the  stove.  By  this  time  even  Mary 
began  to  seem  sorry  for  me,  though 
she  was  very  cross  at  first,  and  hurt 
me  much  more  than  she  need  to 
in  washing  me ;  now  she  said, 
You  're  nothing  but  a  poor  beast 
of  a  cat,  to  be  sure;  but  it's  mesilf 
that  would  be  sorry  to  have  the  little 
mistress  come  back,  and  find  ye 


72  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

kilt."  So  you  see  your  love  for 
me  did  me  service,  even  when  you 
were  so  far  away.  I  doubt  very 
much  wrhether  they  would  have  ever 
taken  the  trouble  to  nurse  me 
through  this  sickness,  except  for  your 
sake.  But  I  must  leave  the  rest  for 
my  next  letter.  I  am  not  strong 
enough  yet  to  write  more  than  two 
hours  at  a  time. 

Your  affectionate         PUSSY. 


VI. 

MY  DEAR  HELEN  : 

I  will  begin  where  I  left  off  in 
my  last  letter. 

As  you  may  imagine,  I  did  not 
get  any  sleep  that  night,  not  even 
so  much  as  a  cat's  nap,  as  people  say, 
though  how  cat's  naps  differ  from 
men's  and  women's  naps,  I  don't 
know.  I  shivered  all  night,  and  it 
hurt  me  terribly  whenever  I  moved. 
Early  in  the  morning  your  grand- 


74  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

father  came  downstairs,  and  when 
he  saw  how  I  looked,  he  swore 
again,  that  same  oath :  we  all  know 
very  well  what  it  means  when  he 
swears  in  that  way:  it  means  that 
he  is  going  to  do  all  he  can  for  you, 
and  is  so  sorry,  that  he  is  afraid  of 
seeming  too  sorry.  Don't  you  re 
member  when  you  had  that  big 
double  tooth  pulled  out,  and  he  gave 
you  five  dollars,  how  he  swore  then  ? 
Well,  he  took  me  up  in  his  arms, 
and  carried  me  into  the  dining-room  ; 
it  was  quite  cool ;  there  was  a  nice 
wood  fire  on  the  hearth,  and  Mary 
was  setting  the  table  for  breakfast. 
He  said  to  her  in  a  very  gruff  voice, 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  75 

"  Here  you,  Mary,  you  go  up  into 
the  garret  and  bring  down  the 
cradle." 

Sick  as  I  was,  I  could  not  help 
laughing  at  the  sight  of  her  face. 
It  was  enough  to  make  any  cat 
laugh. 

"  You  don't  ever  mean  to  say,  sir, 
as  you're  going  to  put  that  cat  into 
the  cradle." 

"  You  do  as  I  tell  you,"  said  he, 
in  that  most  awful  tone  of  his,  which 
always  makes  you  so  afraid.  I  felt 
afraid  myself,  though  all  the  time 
he  was  stroking  my  head,  and  saying, 
"  Poor  pussy,  there,  poor  pussy,  lie 
still."  In  a  few  minutes  Mary 


76  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

came  down  with  the  cradle,  and  set 
it  down  by  the  fire  with  such  a  bang 
that  I  wondered  it  did  not  break. 
You  know  she  always  -bangs  things 
when  she  is  cross,  but  I  never  could 
see  what  good  it  does.  Then  your 
grandfather  made  up  a  nice  bed  in 
the  cradle,  out  of  Charlie's  winter 
blanket  and  an  old  pillow,  and  laid 
me  down  in  it,  all  rolled  up  as  I  was 
in  your  petticoat.  When  your 
mother  came  into  the  room  she 
laughed  almost  as  hard  as  she  did 
when  she  saw  me  in  the  soft-soap 
barrel,  and  said,  "  Why,  father,  you 
are  rather  old  to  play  cat's  cradle!" 
The  old  gentleman  laughed  at  this, 


Then  your  grandfather  made  up  a  nice  bed  in  the  cradle,  and  laid 
me  down  in  it."  —  PAGE  76. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  77 

till  the  tears  ran  down  his  red  cheeks. 
"Well,"  he  said,  "I  tell  you  one 
thing;  the  game  will  last  me  till 
that  poor  cat  gets  well  again/'  Then 
he  went  upstairs,  and  brought  down 
a  bottle  of  something  very  soft  and 
slippery,  like  lard,  and  put  it  on  my 
eyes,  and  it  made  them  feel  much 
better.  After  that  he  gave  me  some 
milk  into  which  he  had  put  some 
of  his  very  best  brandy:  that  was 
pretty  hard  to  get  down,  but  I 
understood  enough  of  what  they 
had  said,  to  be  sure  that  if  I  did 
not  take  something  of  the  kind  I 
should  never  get  well.  After  break 
fast  I  tried  to  walk,  but  my  right 


78  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

paw  was  entirely  useless.  At  first 
they  thought  it  was  broken,  but 
finally  decided  that  it  was  only 
sprained,  and  must  be  bandaged. 
The  bandages  were  wet  with  some 
thing  which  smelled  so  badly  it 
made  me  feel  very  sick,  for  the  first 
day  or  two.  Cats'  noses  are  much 
more  sensitive  to  smells  than  people's 
are;  but  I  grew  used  to  it,  and  it 
did  my  poor  lame  paw  so  much 
good  that  I  would  have  borne  it  if 
it  had  smelled  twice  as  badly.  For 
three  days  I  had  to  lie  all  the  time 
in  the  cradle :  if  your  grandfather 
caught  me  out  of  it,  he  would  swear 
at  me,  and  put  me  back  again. 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  79 

Every  morning  he  put  the  soft  white 
stuff  on  my  eyes,  and  changed  the 
bandages  on  my  leg.  And,  oh,  my 
dear  Helen,  such  good  things  as  I 
had  to  eat !  I  had  almost  the  same 
things  for  my  dinner  that  the  rest 
of  them  did :  it  must  be  a  splendid 
thing  to  be  a  man  or  a  woman  !  I 
do  not  think  I  shall  ever  again  be 
contented  to  eat  in  the  shed,  and 
have  only  the  old  pieces  which  no 
body  wants. 

Two  things  troubled  me  very 
much  while  I  was  confined  to  the 
cradle :  one  was  that  everybody  who 
came  in  to  see  your  mother  laughed 
as  if  they  never  could  stop,  at  the 


8o  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

first  sight  of  me ;  and  the  other  was 
that  I  heard  poor  Caesar  mewing 
all  around  the  house,  and  calling  me 
with  all  his  might ;  and  I  knew  he 
thought  I  was  dead.  I  tried  hard 
to  make  your  kind  mother  notice 
his  crying,  for  I  knew  she  would  be 
willing  to  let  him  come  in  and  see 
me,  but  I  could  not  make  her  under 
stand.  I  suppose  she  thought  it 
was  only  some  common  strolling  cat 
who  was  hungry.  I  have  always 
noticed  that  people  do  not  observe 
any  difference  between  one  cat's 
voice  and  another's;  now  they  really 
are  just  as  different  as  human  voices. 
Caesar  has  one  of  the  finest,  deepest- 


13    - 
- 


O    -S 

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il 

^     >-, 

II 


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I 

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c 

o 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  81 

toned  voices  I  ever  heard.  One 
day,  after  I  got  well  enough  to  be  in 
the  kitchen,  he  slipped  in,  between 
the  legs  of  the  butcher's  boy  who 
was  bringing  in  some  meat ;  but 
before  I  had  time  to  say  one  word 
to  him,  Mary  flew  at  him  with  the 
broom,  and  drove  him  out.  How 
ever,  he  saw  that  I  was  alive,  and 
that  was  something.  I  am  afraid 
it  will  be  some  days  yet  before  I 
can  see  him  again,  for  they  do  not 
let  me  go  out  at  all,  and  the  band 
ages  are  not  taken  off  my  leg. 
The  cradle  is  carried  upstairs,  and 
I  sleep  on  Charlie's  blanket  behind 
the  stove.  I  heard  your  mother 


82  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

say  to-clay  that  she  really  believed 
the  cat  had  the  rheumatism.  I  do 
not  know  what  that  is,  but  I  think 
I  have  got  it:  it  hurts  me  all  over 
when  I  walk,  and  I  feel  as  if  I 
looked  like  Bill  Jacobs's  old  cat, 
who,  they  say,  is  older  than  the  old 
est  man  in  town ;  but  of  course  that 
must  be  a  slander. 

The  thing  I  am  most  concerned 
about  is  my  fur;  it  is  coming  off  in 
spots:  there  is  a  bare  spot  on  the 
back  of  my  neck,  on  the  place  by 
which  they  lifted  me  up  out  of  the 
soap  barrel,  half  as  large  as  your 
hand ;  and  whenever  I  wash  my 
self,  I  get  my  mouth  full  of  hairs, 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  83 

which  is  very  disagreeable.  I  heard 
your  grandfather  say  to-day,  that  he 
believed  he  would  try  Mrs.  Some 
body's  Hair  Restorer  on  the  cat,  at 
which  everybody  laughed  so  that 
I  ran  out  of  the  room  as  fast  as  I 
could  go,  and  then  they  laughed 
still  harder.  I  will  write  you  again 
in  a  day  or  two,  and  tell  you  how 
I  am  getting  on.  I  hope  you  will 
come  home  soon. 

Your  affectionate         PUSSY. 


VII. 

MY  DEAR   HELEN: 

I  am  so  glad  to  know  that  you 
are  coming  home  next  week,  that 
I  cannot  think  of  any  thing  else. 
There  is  only  one  drawback  to  my 
pleasure,  and  that  is,  I  am  so 
ashamed  to  have  you  see  me  in  such 
a  plight.  I  told  you,  in  my  last 
letter,  that  my  fur  was  beginning  to 
come  off.  Your  grandfather  has 
tried  several  things  of  his,  which  are 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  85 

said  to  be  good  for  hair;  but 
they  have  not  had  the  least  effect. 
For  my  part  I  don't  see  why  they 
should ;  fur  and  hair  are  two  very 
different  things,  and  I  thought  at 
the  outset  there  was  no  use  in  put 
ting  on  my  skin  what  was  intended 
for  the  skin  of  human  heads,  and 
even  on  them  don't  seem  to  work 
any  great  wonders,  if  I  can  judge 
from  your  grandfather's  head,  which 
you  know  is  as  bald  and  pink  and 
shiny  as  a  baby's.  However,  he 
has  been  so  good  to  me,  that  I  let 
him  do  any  thing  he  likes,  and  every 
day  he  rubs  in  some  new  kind  of 
stuff,  which  smells  a  little  worse 


86  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

than  the  last  one.  It  is  utterly  im 
possible  for  me  to  get  within  half  a 
mile  of  a  rat  or  a  mouse.  I  might 
as  well  fire  off  a  gun  to  let  them 
know  I  am  coming,  as  to  go  about 
scented  up  so  that  they  can  smell 
me  a  great  deal  farther  off  than  they 
can  see  me.  If  it  were  not  for  this 
dreadful  state  of  my  fur,  I  should 
be  perfectly  happy,  for  I  feel  much 
better  than  I  ever  did  before  in  my 
whole  life,  and  am  twice  as  fat  as 
when  you  went  away.  I  try  to  be 
resigned  to  whatever  may  be  in  store 
for  me,  but  it  is  very  hard  to  look 
forward  to  being  a  fright  all  the  rest 
of  one's  days.  I  don't  suppose  such 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.  87 

a  thing  was  ever  seen  in  the  world 
as  a  cat  without  any  fur.  This 
morning  your  grandfather  sat  look 
ing  at  me  for  a  long  time  and  strok 
ing  his  chin :  at  last  he  said,  "  Do 
you  suppose  it  would  do  any  good 
to  shave  the  cat  all  over  ? "  At  this 
I  could  not  resist  the  impulse  to 
scream,  and  your  mother  said,  "  I 
do  believe  the  creature  knows  when 
ever  we  speak  about  her/'  Of 
course  I  do !  Why  in  the  world 
shouldn't  I  !  People  never  seem  to 
observe  that  cats  have  ears.  I  often 
think  how  much  more  careful  they 
would  be  if  they  did.  I  have 
laughed  many  a  time  to  see  them 


88  LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT. 

send  children  out  of  the  room,  and 
leave  me  behind,  when  I  knew  per 
fectly  well  that  the  children  would 
neither  notice  nor  understand  half 
so  much  as  I  would.  There  are 
some  houses  in  which  I  lived, 
before  I  came  to  live  with  you, 
about  which  I  could  tell  strange 
stories  if  I  chose. 

Caesar  pretends  that  he  likes  the 
looks  of  little  spots  of  pink  skin, 
here  and  there,  in  fur ;  but  I  know 
he  only  does  it  to  save  my  feelings, 
for  it  isn't  in  human  nature-  - 1  mean 
in  cat's  nature-  -that  any  one  should. 
You  see  I  spend  so  much  more 
time  in  the  society  of  men  and  wo- 


LETTERS  FROM  A    CAT.        .         89 

men  than  of  cats,  that  I  find  myself 
constantly  using  expressions  which 
sound  queerly  in  a  cat's  mouth. 
But  you  know  me  well  enough  to  be 
sure  that  every  thing  I  say  is  per 
fectly  natural.  And  now,  my  dear 
Helen,  I  hope  I  have  prepared  you 
to  see  me  looking  perfectly  hideous. 
I  only  trust  that  your  love  for  me 
will  not  be  entirely  killed  by  my 
unfortunate  appearance.  If  you  do 
seem  to  love  me  less,  I  shall  be 
wretched,  but  I  shall  still  be,  always, 
Your  affectionate  PUSSY. 


MAMMY    TITTLEBACK 

AND    HER    FAMILY. 


\ 


MAMMY   TITTLEBACK 


AND 


HER   FAMILY. 


A   TRUE  STORY  Of  SEVENTEEN  CATS. 


BY   H.  H., 

AUTHOR   OF   "BITS   OF  TALK,"    "BITS   OF   TRAVEL,"    "  BITS   OF  TALK    FOR   YOUNG 

FOLKS,"  "NELLY'S  SILVER  MINE,"  AND  "LETTERS  FROM  A  CAT." 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS    BY  ADDIE    LEDYARD. 


BOSTON: 

ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 
1886. 


Copyright,  1881, 
By  ROBERTS  BROTH E 


PREFACE. 


THE  Preface  is  at  the  end  of  the  book, 
and  nobody  must  read  it  till  after  reading 
the  book.  It  will  spoil  all  the  fun  to  read 
it  first.  H.  H. 


Genealogical 

OF 

MAMMY   TITTLEBACK'S   FAMILY. 


JUNIPER, 
MOUSIEWARY, 


SPITFIRE, 

BLACKY, 

COALEY, 

Li  MEAT, 

LILLY, 
GREGORY  20, 


I. 
MAMMY    TITTLEBACK. 

II. 

MAMMY  TITTLEBACK'S  first  kittens. 

III. 

MAMMY  TITTLEBACK'S  second  family 
of  kittens. 


TOTTONTAIL, 
TOTTONTAIL'S 

Brother, 

(sometimes  called 
GRANDFATHER), 


BEAUTY, 
CLOVER, 


IV. 


MAMMY  TITTLEBACK'S  adopted  kittens. 


V, 

MAMMY  TITTLEBACK'S  first  grandkit- 
tens,  being  the  first  kittens  of 
MOUSIEWARY. 


MAMMY   TITTLEBACK 

AND    HER   FAMILY. 

I. 

MAMMY  TITTLEBACK  is  a  splen 
did  great  tortoise-shell  cat,- -yellow 
and  black  and  white ;  nearly  equal 
parts  of  each  color,  except  on 
her  tail  and  her  face.  Her  tail  is 
all  black ;  and  her .  face  is  white, 
with  only  a  little  black  and  yel 
low  about  the  ears  and  eyes.  Her 
face  is  a  very  kind-looking  face,  but 


io  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

her  tail  is  a  fierce  one ;  and  when  she 
is  angry,  she  can  swell  it  up  in  a  min 
ute,  till  it  looks  almost  as  big  as  her 
body. 

Nobody  knows  where  Mammy 
Tittleback  was  born,  or  where  she 
came  from.  She  appeared  one  morn 
ing  at  Mr.  Frank  Wellington's,  in  the 
town  of  Mendon  in  Pennsylvania. 
Phil  and  Fred  Wellington,  Mr. 
Frank  Wellington's  boys,  liked  her 
looks,  and  invited  her  to  stay ;  that 
'is,  they  gave  her  all  the  milk  she 
wanted  to  drink,  and  that  is  the  best 
way  to  make  a  cat  understand  that 
you  want  her  to  live  with  you.  So 
she  stayed,  and  Phil  and  Fred  named 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  n 

her  Mammy  Tittleback  after  a  cat 
they  had  read  about  in  the  "  New 
York  Tribune/' 

Phil  and  Fred  have  two  cousins 
who  often  go  to  visit  them.  Their 
names  are  Johnny  and  Rosy  Chap 
man  ;  and  if  it  had  not  been  for 
Johnny  and  Rosy  Chapman,  there 
would  never  have  been  this  nice  story 
to  tell  about  Mammy  Tittleback  :  for 
Phil  and  Fred  are  big  boys,  and  do 
not  care  very  much  about  cats ;  they 
like  to  see  them  around,  and  to  make 
them  comfortable;  but  Johnny  and 
Rosy  are  quite  different  Johnny  is 
only  eight  and  Rosy  six,  and  they 
love  cats  and  kittens  better  than  any- 


12  MAMMY   TITTLEBACK 

thing  else  in  the  world ;  and  when 
they  went  to  spend  this  last  summer 
at  their  Uncle  Frank  Wellington's, 
and  found  Mammy  Tittleback  with 
six  little  kittens,  just  born,  they 
thought  such  a  piece  of  luck  never 
had  happened  before  to  two  chil 
dren. 

Juniper  and  Mousiewary  had  been 
born  the  year  before.  Phil  named 
these.  Juniper  was  a  splendid  great 
fellow,  nearly  all  white.  At  first  he 
was  called  "Junior,"  but  they  changed 
it  afterward  to  "  Juniper/'  because,  as 
Phil  said,  they  did  n't  know  what  his 
father's  name  was,  and  there  was  n't 
any  sense  in  calling  him  "Junior," 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  13 

and,     besides,    "  Juniper "    sounded 
better. 

M ousiewary  was  white,  with  a  black 
and  yellow  head.  Phil  called  her 
"  M  ousiewary  "  because  she  would  lie 
still  so  long  watching  for  a  mouse. 
She  was  a  year  and  a  half  old  when 
Johnny  and  Rosy  went  to  their  Uncle 
Frank's  for  this  visit,  and  she  had 
two  little  kittens  of  her  own  that 
could  just  run  about.  They  were 
wild  little  things,  and  very  fierce,  so 
Phil  had  called  them  the  Imps.  But 
Johnny  and  Rosy  soon  got  them  so 
tame  that  this  name  did  not  suit  them 
any  longer,  and  then  they  named  them 
over  again  "  Beauty  "  and  "  Clover." 


14  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

Mammy  Tittleback's  second  fam 
ily  of  kittens  were  born  in  the  barn, 
on  the  hay.  After  a  while  she  moved 
them  into  an  old  wagon  that  was  not 
used.  This  was  very  clever  of  her, 
because  they  could  not  get  out  of  the 
wagon  and  run  away.  But  pretty  soon 
she  moved  them  again,  to  a  place 
which  the  children  did  not  approve 
of  at  all ;  it  was  a  sort  of  hollow  in 
the  ground,  under  a  great  pile  of  fence 
rails  that  were  lying  near  the  cow 
shed. 

This  did  not  seem  a  nice  place, 
and  the  children  could  not  imagine 
why  she  moved  them  there.  I  think, 
myself,  she  moved  them  to  try  and 


"After  a  while  she  moved  them  into  an  old  wagon  that  was  not  used."  —  PAGE  14. 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  15 

hide  them  away  from  the  children. 
I  don't  believe  she  thought  it  was 
good  for  the  kittens  to  be  picked  up 
so  many  times  a  day,  and  handled, 
and  kissed,  and  talked  to.  I  dare 
say  she  thought  they  'd  never  have  a 
chance  to  grow  if  she  could  n't  hide 
them  away  from  Johnny  and  Rosy 
for  a  few  weeks.  You  see,  Johnny 
and  Rosy  never  left  them  alone  for 
half  a  day.  They  were  always  carry 
ing  them  about.  When  people  came 
to  the  house  to  see  their  Aunt  Mary, 
the  children  would  cry,  "  Don't  you 
want  to  see  our  six  kittens  ?  We  '11 
bring  them  in  to  you."  Then  they 
would  run  out  to  the  barn,  take  a 


1 6  MAMMY  TITTLE  BACK 

basket,  fill  it  half  full  of  hay,  and 
very  gently  lay  all  the  kittens  in  it, 
and  Johnny  would  take  one  handle 
and  Rosy  the  other,  and  bring  it  to 
the  house.  They  always  put  Mammy 
Tittleback  in  too ;  but  before  they  had 
carried  her  far,  she  generally  jumped 
out,  and  walked  the  rest  of  the  way 
by  their  side.  She  would  never  leave 
them  a  minute  till  they  had  carried 
the  kittens  safe  back  again  to  their 
nest.  She  did  not  try  to  prevent 
their  taking  them,  for  she  knew  that 
neither  Johnny  nor  Rosy  would  hurt 
one  of  them  anymore  than  she  would ; 
but  I  have  no  doubt  in  her  heart  she 
disliked  to  have  the  kittens  touched. 


!     i    I 


"  Johnny  would  take  one  handle,  and  Rosy  the  other,  and  bring  it  to  the 
house."  —  PAGE  16. 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  17 

The  children  worried  a  great  deal 
about  this  last  place  that  Mammy 
Tittleback  had  selected  for  her  nur 
sery.  They  thought  it  was  damp ; 
and  they  were  afraid  the  rails  would 
fall  down  some  day  and  crush  the 
poor  little  kittens  to  death;  and  what 
was  worst  of  all,  very  often  when  they 
went  there  to  look  at  them,  they  could 
not  get  any  good  sight  of  them  at  all, 
they  would  be  so  far  in  among  the 
rails. 

At  last  a  bright  idea  struck  Johnny. 
He  said  he  would  build  a  nice  house 
for  them. 

"  You  can't/'  said  Rosy. 

"  I  can  too,"  said  Johnny.  "'T  won't 


1 8  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

be  a  house  such  as  folks  live  in,  but 
it  '11  do  for  cats/' 

"  Will  it  be  as  nice  as  a  dog's 
house,  Johnny?"  asked  Rosy. 

"  Nicer,"  said  Johnny;  "  that  is, 
it  '11  be  prettier.  'Twon't  be  so  close. 
Cats  don't  need  it  so  close ;  but  it  '11 
be  prettier.  It 's  going  to  have  flags 
on  it." 

"  Flags  !  O  Johnny  ! '  exclaimed 
Rosy.  "  That  '11  be  splendid  ;  but 
we  have  n't  got  any  flags." 

"  I  know  where  I  can  get  as  many 
as  I  want,"  said  Johnny, — "down  to 
the  club-room.  They  give  flags  to 
boys  there." 

"What  for,  Johnny?"  asked  Rosy. 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  19 

"Oh,  just  to  carry/'  replied  Johnny 
proudly.  "  They  like  to  have  boys 
carrying  their  flags  round/' 

"  Do  you  suppose  they  '11  like  to 
have  them  on  a  cat's  house  ? "  asked 
Rosy. 

"Why  not?"  said  Johnny;  and 
Rosy  did  not  know  what  to  say. 

Very  hard  Johnny  worked  on  the 
house  ;  and  it  was  a  queer-looking 
house  when  it  was  done,  but  it  was 
the  only  one  I  ever  heard  of  that  was 
built  on  purpose  for  cats.  It  was 
about  eight  feet  square ;  the  central 
support  of  it  was  an  old  saw-horse 
turned  up  endwise,  with  a  mason's 
trestle  on  top ;  the  roof  was  made  of 


20  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

old  rails,  and  had  two  slopes  to  it, 
like  real  houses'  roofs;  the  sides 
were  uneven,  because  on  one  side  the 
rails  rested  on  an  old  pig-trough,  and 
on  the  other  on  a  wooden  trestle 
which  was  higher  than  the  trough. 
This  unevenness  troubled  Johnny, 
but  it  really  made  the  house  prettier. 
The  space  under  this  roof  was  di 
vided  by  rows  of  small  stakes  into 
three  compartments,-  -one  large  one 
for  Mammy  Tittleback  and  her  six 
youngest  kittens ;  Mousiewary  and 
her  two  kittens  in  another  smaller 
room;  and  the  adopted  kittens  and 
Juniper  in  a  third.  I  have  n't  told  you 
yet  about  the  adopted  kittens,  but  I 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  21 

will  presently.  These  three  rooms 
had  each  a  tin  pan  set  in  the  middle, 
and  fixed  firm  in  its  place  by  small 
stakes  driven  into  the  ground  around 
it.  Johnny  was  determined  to  teach 
the  cats  to  keep  in  their  own  rooms, 
and  that  each  family  must  eat  by 
itself.  It  was  n't  so  hard  to  bring 
this  about  as  you  would  have  sup 
posed,  because  Johnny  and  Rosy 
spent  nearly  all  their  time  with  the 
cats,  and  every  time  any  cat  or  kitten 
stepped  over  the  little  wall  of  stakes 
into  the  apartment  of  another  family, 
it  was  very  gently  lifted  up  and  put 
back  again  into  its  own  room,  and 
stroked  and  told  in  gentle  voice,  — 


22  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

"  Stay  in  your  own  room,  kitty." 
And  at  meal-times  there  was  very 
little  trouble,  after  the  first  few  days, 
with  anybody  but  Juniper.  All  the 
rest  learned  very  soon  which  milk- 
pan  belonged  to  them,  and  would  run 
straight  to  it,  as  soon  as  Johnny  called 
them.  But  Juniper  was  an  inde 
pendent  cat ;  and  he  persisted  in 
walking  about  from  room  to  room, 
pretty  much  as  he  pleased.  You  see 
he  was  the  only  unemployed  cat  in 
the  set.  Mammy  Tittleback  had  her 
hands  full, — I  suppose  you  ought  to 
say  paws  full  when  you  are  speaking 
of  cats,-  -with  six  kittens  of  her  own 
and  two  adopted  ones ;  and  Mousie- 


AND  HER   FAMILY. 


wary  was  just  as  busy  with  her  two 
kittens  as  if  she  had  had  ten ;  but 
Juniper  had  nobody  to  look  after 
except  himself.  He  was  a  lazy  cat 
too.  He  always  used  to  walk  slowly 
to  his  meals.  The  rest  would  all  be 
running  and  jumping  in  their  hurry 
to  get  to  the  house  when  Johnny  and 
Rosy  called  them;  but  Juniper  would 
come  marching  along  as  slowly  as  if 
he  were  in  no  sort  of  hurry,  in  fact, 
as  if  he  did  n't  care  whether  he  had 
anything  to  eat  or  not.  But  once  he 
got  to  the  pan  he  would  drink  fully 
his  share,  and  more  too. 


II. 


Now  I  must  tell  you  about  the 
adopted  kittens.  They  belonged  to 
a  wild  cat  who  lived  in  the  garden. 
Nobody  knew  anything  about  this 
cat.  She  was  a  kind  of  a  beggar  and 
thief  cat,  Johnny  said.  She  would  n't 
let  you  take  care  of  her,  or  get  near 
her ;  and  the  only  reason  she  took  up 
her  abode  in  the  garden  with  her  kit 
tens  was  so  as  to  be  near  the  milk- 
house,  and  have  a  chance  nowr  and 


MAMMY  TITTLEBACK.  25 

then  to  steal  milk  out  of  the  great  ket 
tles.  One  day  the  children  found  the 
poor  thing  dead  in  the  chicken  yard. 
What  killed  her  there  was  nothing  to 
show,  but  dead  she  was,  and  no  mis 
take;  so  the  children  carried  her  away 
and  buried  her,  and  then  went  to  look 
for  her  little  kittens.  There  were  four 
of  them,  and  the  poor  little  things  were 
half  dead  from  hunger.  Their  mother 
must  have  been  dead  some  time  be 
fore  the  children  found  her.  They 
were  too  young  to  be  fed,  and  the 
only  chance  for  saving  their  lives  was 
to  get  Mammy  Tittleback  to  adopt 
them. 
*"  She 's  got  an  awful  big  family 


26  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

now/'  said  Phil,  "  but  we  might  try 
her." 

"  She  won't  know  but  they  're  her 
own,  if  we  don't  let  them  all  suck  at 
opce,"  said  Johnny  ;  "  but  it  would  n't 
be  fair  to  cheat  her  that  way/' 

"  Won't  know!  "said  Phil.  "That's 
all  you  know  about  cats!  She'll 
know  they  ain't  hers  as  quick  as  she 
sees  them." 

It  was  a  very  droll  sight  to  see 
Mammy  Tittleback  when  the  strange 
kittens  were  put  down  by  her  side. 
She  was  half  asleep,  and  some  of  her 
own  kittens  had  gone  to  sleep  sucking 
their  dinners ;  but  the  instant  these 
poor  famished  little  things  were  put 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  27 

down  by  her,  two  of  them  began  to 
suck  as  if  they  had  never  had  any 
thing  to  eat  before,  since  they  were 
born.  Mammy  Tittleback  opened 
her  eyes,  and  jumped  up  so  quick 
she  knocked  all  the  kittens  head 
over  heels  into  a  heap.  Then  she 
began  smelling  at  kitten  after  kit 
ten,  and  licking  her  own  as  she 
smelled  them,  till  she  came  to  the 
strangers,  when  she  growled  a  little, 
and  sniffed  and  sniffed  ;  if  cats  could 
turn  up  their  noses,  she  'd  have  turned 
up  hers,  but  as  she  could  n't  she  only 
growled  and  pushed  them  with  her 
paw,  and  looked  at  them,  all  the  time 
sniffing  contemptuously.  Johnny 


28  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

and  Rosy  were  nearly  ready  to 
cry. 

"  Is  she  Adopting  'em  ? "  whispered 
Rosy. 

"  Keep  still,  can't  you  !  "  said  Phil ; 
"  don't  interrupt  her.  Let  her  do  as 
she  wants  to." 

The  children  held  their  breaths 
and  watched.  It  looked  very  discour 
aging.  Mammy  Tittleback  walked 
round  and  round,  looking  much  per 
plexed  and  not  at  all  pleased.  One 
minute  she  would  stand  still  and 
stare  at  the  pile  of  kittens,  as  if  she 
did  not  know  what  to  make  of  it; 
then  she  would  fall  to  smelling  and 
licking  her  own.  At  last,  by  mistake 


Mammy  Tittleback  walked  round  and  round,  looking  much  perplexed  and  not 
at  all  pleased."  —  PAGE  28. 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  29 

perhaps,  she  gave  a  little  lick  to  one 
of  the  orphans. 

"Oh,  oh/'  screamed  Johnny,  "she 's 
going  to,  she 's  licked  it ;  "  at  which 
Phil  gave  Johnny  a  great  shake,  and 
told  him  to  be  quiet  or  he  'd  spoil 
everything.  Presently  Mammy  Tit- 
tleback  lay  down  again  and  stretched 
herself  out,  and  in  less  than  a  minute 
all  six  of  her  own  kittens  and  the  two 
strongest  of  the  strangers  were  suck 
ing  away  as  hard  as  ever  they  could. 

The  children  jumped  for  joy  ;  but 
their  joy  was  dampened  by  the  sight 
of  the  other  two  feeble  little  kittens, 
who  lay  quite  still  and  did  not  try  to 
crowd  in  among  the  rest. 


30  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

"  Are  they  dead  ?  "  asked  Rosy. 

"  No,"  said  Johnny,  picking  them 
up,  -  -  "  no  ;  but  I  guess  they  will  die 
pretty  soon,  they  don't  maow."  And 
he  laid  them  down  very  gently  close 
in  between  Mammy  Tittleback's 
hind  legs. 

"  Well,  they  might  as  well,"  re 
marked  Phil.  "  Eight  kittens  are 
enough.  Mammy  Tittleback  can't 
bring  up  all  the  kittens  in  the  town, 
you  need  n't  think.  She 's  a  real  old 
brick  of  a  cat  to  take  these  two.  I 
hope  the  others  will  die  anyhow. " 

"O  Phil,"  said  Rosy,  "couldn't 
we  find  some  other  cat  to  'dopt  these 
two  ? "  Rosy's  tender  heart  ached 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  31 

as  hard  at  the  thought  of  these  moth 
erless  little  kittens  as  if  they  had  been 
a  motherless  little  boy  and  girl. 

"  No,"  said  Phil,  "  I  don  t  know 
any  other  cat  round  here  that 's  got 
kittens." 

"  But,  Phil,"  persisted  Rosy,  "is  n't 
there  some  cat  that  hasn't  got  any 
kittens  that  would  like  some  ? " 

Phil  looked  at  Rosy  for  a  minute 
without  speaking,  then  he  burst  out 
laughing  and  said  to  Johnny,  "  Come 
on  ;  what 's  the  use  talking  ?  " 

Then  Rosy  looked  very  much  hurt, 
and  ran  into  the  house  to  ask'  her 
Aunt  Mary  if  she  did  n't  know  of 
any  cat  that  would  adopt  the  two 


32  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

poor  little  kittens  that  Mammy  Tit- 
tleback  would  n't  take. 

The  next  morning,  when  the  chil 
dren  went  out  to  visit  their  cats,  the 
two  feeble  little  kittens  were  dead,  so 
that  put  an  end  to  all  trouble  on  that 
score,  and  left  only  thirteen  cats  for 
the  children  to  take  care  of. 

It  is  wonderful  how  fast  young 
cats  grow.  It  seemed  only  a  few 
days  before  all  eight  of  these  little 
kittens  were  big  enough  to  run  around, 
and  a  very  pretty  sight  it  was  to  see 
them  following  Johnny  and  Rosy 
wherever  they  went. 

Spitfire  was  Johnny's  favorite  from 
the  beginning.  He  was  a  sharp,  spry 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  33 

fellow,  not  very  good-natured  to  any 
body  but  Johnny.  Rosy  was  really 
afraid  of  him,  even  while  he  was  lit 
tle;  but  Johnny  made  him  his  chief 
pet,  and  told  him  everything  that 
happened. 

Mammy  Tittleback  had  divided 
her  own  colors  among  her  kittens 
very  oddly.  "  Spitfire  "  was  all  yellow 
and  white ;  "  Coaley  "  was  black  as  a 
coal,  and  that  was  why  he  was  called 
"  Coaley."  "  Blacky  "  was  black  and 
white ;  "  Limbab,"  white  with  gray 
spots  ;  "  Gregory  Second,"  gray  with 
white  spots ;  and  "  Lily"  was  as  white 
as  snow,  for  which  reason  she  got  her 
pretty  name.  Rosy  wanted  her  called 


34  MAMMY  TITTLE  BACK 

"  White  Lily,"  but  the  boys  thought 
it  too  long.  Where  there  were  so 
many  cats,  they  said,  none  of  the 
names  ought  to  be  more  than  two 
syllables  long,  if  you  could  .help  it. 
"  Gregory"  had  to  be  called  " Gregory 
Second,"  because  there  was  another 
Gregory  already,  an  old  cat  over  at 
Grandma  Jameson's,  and  it  was  for 
him  that  this  kitten  was  named ;  and 
"  Tottontail "  had  to  be  called  "  Tot- 
tontail,"  because  he  was  all  over  gray, 
with  just  a  little  bit  of  white  at  the 
tip  of  his  tail,  like  a  cottontail  rabbit. 
And  his  brother  was  exactly  like  him, 
only  a  little  bit  less  white  on  his  tail, 
so  it  seemed  best  to  call  him  "  Tot- 


AND   HER   FAMILY.  35 

tontail's  Brother ; "  and  he  had  such 
a  funny  way  of  putting  his  ears  back, 
it  made  him  look  like  an  old  man  ;  so 
sometimes  they  could  not  help  calling 
him  "  Grandfather/'  Altogether  there 
seemed  to  be  a  very  good  reason  for 
every  name  in  the  whole  family,  and 
I  think  there  was  just  as  good  a  rea 
son  for  calling  "  Lily"  "White  Lily." 
However,  as  Phil  said,  "  anybody 
could  see  she  was  white ;  and  nobody 
ever  heard  of  a  black  lily  anyhow,  and 
it  saved  time  to  say  just  *  Lily/ 


III. 

MR.  FRANK  WELLINGTON'S  house 
was  an  old-fashioned  square  wooden 
house,  with  a  wide  hall  running 
straight  through  it  from  front  to 
back  ;  at  the  back  was  a  broad  piazza 
with  a  railing  around  it,  and  steps 
leading  down  into  the  back  yard. 
Grape-vines  grew  on  the  sides  of  this 
piazza,  and  a  splendid  great  polonia- 
tree,  which  had  heart-shaped  leaves 
as  big  as  dinner-plates,  grew  close 


^"l"  '   -«^:/ 


Rosy  Chapman  running  among  the  Verbena  beds,  and  half  a  dozen  kittens 
racing  after  her."  —  PAGE  37. 


MAMMY  TITTLEBACK.  37 

enough  to  it  to  shade  it.  This  was 
where  Mrs.  Wellington  used  to  sit 
with  her  sewing  on  summer  after 
noons  ;  and  she  often  thought  that 
there  could  n't  be  a  prettier  sight  in 
all  the  world  than  Rosy  Chapman 
running  among  the  verbena  beds  with 
her  long  yellow  curls  flying  behind, 
her  little  bare  white  feet  glancing  up 
and  down  among  the  bright  blos 
soms,  and  half  a  dozen  kittens  racing 
after  her.  Rosy  loved  to  race  with 
them  better  than  anything  else  ; 
though  sometimes  she  would  sit 
down  in  her  little  rocking-chair,  hold 
ing  her  lap  full  of  them,  and  rocking 
them  to  sleep.  But  Johnny  made  a 


38  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

more  serious  business  of  it.  Johnny 
wanted  to  teach  them.  He  had  read 
about  learned  pigs  and  trained  fleas, 
and  he  was  sure  these  kittens  were  a 
great  deal  brighter  than  either  pigs 
or  fleas  could  possibly  be ;  so  what 
do  you  think  Johnny  did  ?  He 
printed  the  alphabet  in  large  letters 
on  a  sheet  of  white  pasteboard,  nailed 
it  up  on  the  inside  of  the  largest  room 
in  the  cats'  house,  and  spent  hours 
and  hours  reading  the  letters  over  to 
the  kittens.  He  had  a  scheme  of 
putting  the  letters  on  separate  square 
bits  of  pasteboard  or  paper  pasted 
on  wood,  and  teaching  the  kittens  to 
pick  them  out ;  but  before  he  did 


AND  HER   FAMILY,  39 

that,  he  wanted  to  be  sure  that  they 
knew  them  by  sight  on  the  paper  he 
had  nailed  up,  and  he  never  became 
sure  enough  of  that  to  go  on  any  far 
ther  in  his  teaching.  In  fact,  he  never 
got  any  farther  than  to  succeed  in 
keeping  them  still  for  a  few  minutes 
while  he  read  the  letters  aloud.  The 
cat  that  kept  still  the  longest,  he  said, 
was  the  best  scholar  that  day ;  he  put 
their  names  down  in  a  little  book,  and 
gave  them  good  and  bad  marks  ac 
cording  as  they  behaved,  just  as  he 
and  Rosy  used  to  get  marks  in  school. 
After  Johnny  got  all  his  flags  up, 
the  cats'  house  looked  very  pretty. 
It  had  four  flags  on  it;  one  was  a 


40  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

big  one  with  the  stars  and  stripes, 
and  "  Our  Republic "  in  big  letters 
on  it ;  one  was  a  "  Garfield  and 
Arthur  "  flag,  which  had  been  given 
to  Johnny  by  the  Garfield  Club  in 
Mendon  ;  underneath  this  was  a 
small  white  one  Johnny  made  him 
self,  with  "  Hurrah  for  Both  '  on  it 
in  rather  uneven  letters  ;  then  at  two 
of  the  corners  of  the  house  were 
small  red,  white,  and  blue  flags  of 
the  common  sort.  But  the  glory 
of  all  was  a  big  flag  on  a  flagstaff 
twenty  feet  high,  which  Uncle  Frank 
put  up  for  the  boys.  This  also  was 
a  "  Garfield  and  Arthur  "  flag,  and  a 
very  fine  one  it  was  too.  The  kit- 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  41 

tens  used  to  look  up  longingly  at  all 
these  bright  flags  blowing  in  the 
wind  above  their  house  ;  but  Johnny 
had  taken  care  to  put  them  high 
enough  to  be  beyond  their  reach  even 
when  they  climbed  up  to  the  ridge 
pole.  They  would  have  made  tat 
ters  of  them  all  in  five  seconds  if 
they  could  have  ever  got  their  claws 
into  them. 

As  soon  as  the  kittens  were  big 
enough  to  enjoy  playing  with  a  mouse, 
or,  perhaps,  taking  a  bite  of  one, 
Mammy  Tittleback  returned  to  her 
old  habits  of  mouse-catching.  There 
had  never  been  such  a  mouser  as  she 
on  the  farm.  It  is  really  true  that 


42  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

she  had  several  times  been  known 
to  catch  six  mice  in  five  minutes  by 
Mr.  Frank  Wellington's  watch  ;  and 
once  she  did  a  thing  even  more  won 
derful  than  that.  This  Phil  described 
to  me  himself;  and  Phil  is  one  of  the 
most  exact  and  truthful  boys,  and 
never  makes  any  story  out  bigger 
than  it  is. 

The  place  where  they  used  to 
have  the  best  fun  seeing  Mammy 
Tittleback  catch  mice  was  in  the 
cornhouse.  The  floor  of  the  corn- 
house  was  half  covered  writh  cobs 
from  which  the  corn  had  been  shelled; 
in  one  corner  these  were  piled  up 
half  as  high  as  the  wall.  The  mice 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  43 

used  to  hide  among  these,  and  in 
the  cracks  in  the  walls ;  the  boys 
would  take  long  sticks,  push  the 
cobs  about,  and  roll  them  from  side 
to  side.  This  would  frighten  the 
mice  and  make  them  run  out. 
Mammy  Tittleback  stood  in  the 
middle  of  the  floor  ready  to  spring 
for  them  the  minute  they  ap 
peared.  One  day  the  boys  were 
doing  this,  and  two  mice  ran  out 
almost  at  the  same  minute  and  the 
same  way.  Mammy  Tittleback 
caught  the  first  one  in  her  mouth ; 
they  thought  she  would  lose  the  sec 
ond  one.  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Quick 
as  a  flash  she  pounced  on  that  one 


44  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

too,  and,  without  letting  go  of  the 
one  she  already  had  in  her  teeth,  she 
actually  caught  the  second  one !  Two 
live  mice  at  once  in  her  mouth !  They 
were  not  alive  many  seconds,  though; 
one  craunch  of  Mammy  Tittleback's 
teeth  killed  them  both,  and  she 
dropped  them  on  the  floor,  and  was 
all  ready  to  catch  the  next  ones.  Did 
anybody  ever  hear  of  such  a  mouser 
as  that  ? 

Another  story  also  Phil  told  me 
about  the  kittens  which  I  should  have 
found  it  hard  to  believe  if  I  had  read 
it  in  a  book  ;  but  which  I  know  must 
be  true,  because  Phil  told  it.  One  day, 
after  the  kittens  had  grown  so  big 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  45 

that  they  used  to  go  everywhere,  the 
children  went  off  for  a  long  walk 
in  the  fields,  and  four  of  the  kittens 
went  with  them.  When  the  children 
climbed  fences  the  kittens  crawled 
through,  and  they  had  no  trouble  till 
they  came  to  a  brook.  The  children 
just  tucked  up  their  trousers  and 
waded  through,  first  putting  the  kit 
tens  all  down  together  in  a  hollow  at 
the  roots  of  a  tree,  and  telling  them 
to  stay  still  there  till  they  came  back. 
They  had  n't  gone  many  steps  on  the 
other  side  when  they  heard  first  one 
splash,  then  two,  then  three;  and, 
looking  round,  what  should  they  see 
but  three  of  those  little  kittens  swim- 


46  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

ming  for  dear  life  across  the  brook, 
their  poor  little  noses  hardly  above 
the  water  ?  It  was  as  much  as  ever 
they  got  across ;  but  they  did,  and 
scrambled  out  on  the  other  side  look 
ing  like  drowned  rats.  These  were 
Spitfire  and  Gregory  Second  and 
Blacky  ;  Tottontail  was  the  fourth. 
He  did  not  appear,  and  he  was  not 
to  be  seen,  either,  where  they  had  put 
him  down  on  the  other  side.  At  last 
they  spied  him  racing  up  stream  as 
hard  as  he  could  go.  He  ran  till  he 
came  to  a  place  where  the  brook  was 
only  a  little  thread  of  water  in  the 
grass,  and  there  he  very  sensibly 
stepped  across ;  the  only  one  of  the 


111  lflrflfa*>>       V          .         ' 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  47 

whole  party,  cats  or  children,  who 
got  over  without  wet  feet.  Now 
who  can  help  believing  that  Totton- 
tail  thought  it  all  out  in  his  head,  just 
as  a  boy  or  a  girl  would  who  had 
never  learned  to  swim  ?  It  was  very 
wonderful  that  Spitfire  and  Gregory 
and  Blacky  should  have  plunged 
in  to  swim  across,  when  they  had 
never  done  such  a  thing  before  in  all 
their  lives,  and  of  course  must  have 
hated  the  very  touch  of  water,  as  all 
cats  do  ;  but  I  think  it  was  still  more 
wonderful  in  Tottontail  to  have  rea 
soned  that  if  he  ran  along  the  stream 
for  a  little  distance,  he  might  possibly 
come  to  a  place  where  he  could  get 


48  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

over  by  an  easier  way  than  swimming, 
and  without  wetting  his  feet 

The  summer  was  gone  before  the 
children  felt  as  if  it  had  fairly  begun. 
Each  of  them  had  had  a  flower-bed 
of  his  own,  and  ever  so  many  of  the 
flowers  had  gone  to  seed  before  the 
children  had  finished  their  first  weed 
ing.  The  little  cats  had  enjoyed  the 
gardens  as  much  as  the  children  had. 
When  the  beds  were  first  planted,  and 
the  green  plants  were  just  peeping 
up,  the  kittens  were  very  often  scolded, 
and  sometimes  had  their  ears  gently 
boxed,  to  keep  them  from  walking 
on  the  beds;  but  by  August,  when 
the  weeds  and  the  flowers  were  all 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  49 

up  high  and  strong  together,  they 
raced  in  and  out  among  them  as 
much  as  they  pleased,  and  had  fine 
frolics  under  the  poppies  and  climb 
ing  hollyhock  stems. 

When  the  time  of  Johnny's  and 
Rosy's  visit  drew  near  its  end, 
Johnny  felt  very  sad  at  the  thought 
of  leaving  his  kittens.  They  were 
"just  at  the  prettiest  age/'  he  said; 
"  just  beginning  to  be  some  comfort/' 
after  all  the  pains  he  had  taken  to 
train  them ;  and  he  was  very  much 
afraid  they  would  not  be  so  well 
taken  care  of  after  he  had  gone. 
Fred  was  going  away  to  school  for 
the  winter,  and  Phil,  he  thought, 


50  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

would  never  have  patience  to  feed 
thirteen  cats  each  day.  However,  he 
did  all  that  he  could  to  make  them 
comfortable  for  the  winter.  He 
boarded  up  the  sides  of  their  house 
snug  and  warm,  so  that  they  need 
not  suffer  from  cold ;  and  he  made 
his  Aunt  Mary  promise  to  give  them 
plenty  of  milk  twice  a  day.  Then, 
when  the  time  came,  he  bade  them 
all  good-by  one  by  one,  and  had  a 
long  farewell  talk  with  his  favorite 
Spitfire.  Rosy,  too,  felt  very  sad  at 
leaving  them,  but  not  so  sad  as 
Johnny. 

Johnny  and  Rosy  and  their  mother 
were  to   spend   the  winter   at   their 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  51 

Grandma  Jameson's,  in  the  town 
of  Burnet,  only  twelve  miles  from 
Mendon,  and  Johnny  said  to  Spit 
fire,  - 

"It  is  n't  as  if  \ve  were  going  so 
far  off,  we  could  n't  ever  come  to  see 
you.  We  '11  be  back  some  day  before 
Christmas." 

"  Maow,"  said  Spitfire. 

"  I  'm  perfectly  sure  he  understands 
all  I  say,"  said  Johnny.  "  Don't  you, 
Spitfire  ?" 

"  Maow,  maow,"  replied  Spitfire. 

"  There ! "  said  Johnny  trium 
phantly  ;  "  I  knew  he  did." 

It  was  the  middle  of  October  when 
Johnny  and  Rosy  left  their  Aunt 


52  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

Mary's  and  went  to  Grandma  Jame 
son's.  Much  to  their  delight,  they 
found  four  cats  there. 

"  A  good  deal  better  than  none," 
said  Johnny. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rosy,  "but  they  're  all 
old.  They  won't  play  tag.  They  're 
real  old  cats." 

"  Anyhow,  they  're  better  than 
none,"  replied  Johnny  resolutely. 
"  They  're  good  to  hold,  and  Snow 
ball  's  a  splendid  mouser." 

These  cats'  names  were  "  Snow 
ball,"  "  Lappit,"  "  Stonepile,"  and 
"  Gregory."  This  was  the  old  "  Greg 
ory"  after  whom  the  kitten  "  Gregory 
Second  "  over  at  Mendon  had  been 


AND  HER   FAMILY. 


53 


named.  "  Gregory '  had  been  in 
the  Jameson  family  a  good  many 
years. 


IV. 

THERE  was  another  character  who 
had  been  in  the  Jameson  family  a 
good  many  years,  about  whom  I 
must  tell  you,  because  he  will  come 
in  presently  in  connection  with  this 
history  of  the  cats.  In  fact,  he  has 
more  to  do  with  the  next  part  of  the 
history  than  even  Johnny  and  Rosy 
have.  This  is  an  old  colored  man 
who  takes  care  of  Grandma  Jame 
son's  farm  for  her.  He  is  as  good 


MAMMY   TITTLEBACK.  55 

an  old  man  as  "  Uncle  Tom  "  was,  in 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin, "  and  I  'm 
sure  he  must  be  as  black.  He  lives 
in  a  little  house  in  a  grove  of  chest 
nut  and  oak  trees,  just  across  the 
meadow  from  Grandma  Jameson's; 
and,  summer  and  winter,  rain  or  shine, 
he  is  to  be  seen  every  morning  at 
daylight  coming  up  the  lane  ready 
for  his  day's  work.  His  name  is 
Jerry;  he  is  well  known  all  over 
Burnet,  and  he  is  one  of  the  old 
men  that  nobody  ever  passes  by 
without  speaking.  "  Hullo,  Jerry  ! ' 
"  How  de  do,  Jerry  ? "  "  Is  that  you, 
Jerry?"  are  to  be  heard  on  all  sides 
as  Jerry  goes  through  the  street. 


56  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

There  is  a  mule,  too,  that  Jerry 
drives,  which  is  almost  as  well  known 
as  Jerry.  There  is  a  horse  also  on 
the  farm ;  but  the  horse  is  so  fat  he 
can't  go  as  fast  as  the  mule  does. 
So  the  mule  and  the  horse  have  gradu 
ally  changed  places  in  their  duties ; 
the  horse  does  the  farm  work  and  the 
mule  goes  to  town  on  errands  ;  and 
there  is  no  more  familiar  sight  in  all 
the  town  of  Burnet  than  the  Jame 
son  Rockaway  drawn  by  the  mule 
Nelly,  with  old  Jerry  sitting  sidewise 
on  the  low  front  seat,  driving.  There 
isn't  a  week  in  the  year  that  Jerry 
does  n't  go  down  to  the  railway  sta 
tion  at  least  once,  and  sometimes  sev- 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  57 

eral  times,  in  this  way,  to  bring  some 
of  Grandma  Jameson's  children  or 
grandchildren  or  nieces  or  nephews  or 
friends  to  come  and  make  her  a  visit. 
Her  house  is  one  of  the  houses  that 
never  seems  to  be  so  full  it  can't  hold 
more.  You  know  there  are  some 
such  houses ;  the  more  people  come, 
the  merrier,  and  there  is  always  room 
made  somehow  for  everybody  to  sleep 
at  night. 

You  would  n't  think  to  look  at  the 
house  that  it  could  hold  many  peo 
ple;  it  is  not  large.  In  truth,  I  can 
not  myself  imagine,  often  as  I  have 
stayed  in  the  dear  old  place,  where 
all  the  people  have  slept  when  I  have 


58  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

known  twelve  or  more  to  come  down 
to  breakfast  of  a  morning,  all  looking 
as  if  they  had  had  a  capital  night's 
rest.  Jerry  is  always  glad  as  any 
body  in  the  house  when  visitors  come  ; 
yet  it  makes  him  no  end  of  wrork,  car 
rying  them  and  their  luggage  back 
and  forth  to  town,  with  all  the  rest 
of  the  errands  he  has  to  do.  Nelly 
is  pretty  old,  and  the  Rockaway  is 
small,  and  many  a  time  Jerry  has  to 
make  two  trips  to  get  one  party  of 
people  up  to  the  house,  with  all  that 
belongs  to  them  in  the  way  of  trunks 
and  bags  and  bundles;  but  he  likes  it. 
He  pulls  off  his  old  drab  felt  hat,  and 
bows,  and  holds  out  both  hands,  and 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  59 

everybody  who  comes  shakes  hands 
with  Jerry,  first  of  all,  at  the  station. 

One  day,  late  in  last  October,  Jerry 
was  at  the  post-office  waiting  for  the 
mail ;  when  it  came  in,  there  was  a 
postal  card  from  Mendon  for  Mrs. 
Jameson,  and  as  the  postmistress 
is  Mrs.  Jameson's  own  niece,  she 
thought  she  would  look  at  the  mes 
sage  on  the  card,  and  see  if  all  were 
well  at  Mr.  Frank  Wellington's. 
This  was  what  she  found  written 
on  the  card, — 

"  Meet  company  at  the  three  o'clock 
train." 

That  was  the  train  which  had  just 
come  in  and  brought  the  mail. 


6o  MAMMY  TITTLE  BACK 

"  Oh,  dear ! "  said  she.  "  Jerry,  it  is 
well  I  looked  at  this  card.  It  is  from 
Mr.  Wellington,  and  he  says  there 
will  be  company  down  by  the  three 
o'clock  train,  to  go  to  Grandma's. 
You  must  turn  round  and  go  right 
to  the  station ;  they  will  be  waiting, 
and  wondering  why  nobody 's  there 
to  meet  them." 

"  That  's  a  fact,"  said  Jerry; 
"they  Ve  done  sure,  wonderin'  by 
this  time  ;  'spect  they  Ve  walked  up  ; 
but  I  '11  go  down  'n'  see." 

So  Jerry  made  as  quick  time  as  he 
could  coax  out  of  the  mule,  down  to 
the  railway  station.  The  train  had 
been  gone  more  than  half  an  hour, 


AND   HER   FAMILY.  61 

and  the  station  was  quiet  and  de 
serted  by  all  except  the  station-master, 
who  was  waiting  for  the  up-train, 
which  would  be  along  in  an  hour. 

"  Been  anybody  here  to  go  up  to 
our  house  ?  "  asked  Jerry.  "  We  got 
a  postal,  sayin'  there  'd  be  company 
down  on  the  three  o'clock/' 

"  Well,"  replied  the  station-master, 
looking  curiously  at  Jerry,  "  there  was 
some  company  came  on  that  train  for 
your  folks/1 

"  What  became  on  'em  ? '  said 
Jerry.  "  Hev  they  walked  ? " 

"  Well,  no  ;  they  hain't  walked  ; 
they  're  in  the  Freight  Depot,"  said 
the  man  rather  shortly. 


62  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

Jerry  thought  this  was  the  queerest 
thing  he  ever  heard  of. 

"  In  the  Freight  Depot!'  ex 
claimed  he.  "  What  'd  they  go  there 
for  ?  Who  be  they  ? " 

"  You  '11  find  'em  there,"  replied  the 
man,  and  turned  on  his  heel. 

Still  more  bewildered,  Jerry  hur 
ried  to  the  Freight  Depot,  which  was 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  railroad 
track,  a  little  farther  down.  Now  I 
am  wondering  if  any  of  you  children 
will  guess  who  the  "  company  "  were 
that  had  come  from  Mendon  by  the 
three  o'clock  train  to  go  to  Grandma 
Jameson's.  It  makes  me  laugh  so 
to  think  of  it,  that  I  can  hardly  write 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  6 


o 


the  words.  I  don't  believe  I  shall 
ever  get  to  be  so  old  that  it  won't 
make  me  laugh  to  think  about  this 
batch  of  visitors  to  Grandma  Jame 
son's. 

It  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
all  Johnny  Chapman's  cats  !  Yes,  all 
of  them,  —  Mammy  Tittleback,  Ju 
niper,  Mousiewary,  Spitfire,  Blacky, 
Coaley,  Limbab,  Lily,  Gregory  Sec 
ond,  Tottontail,  Tottontail's  Brother, 
Beauty,  Clover.  There  they  all  were, 
large  as  life,  and  maowing  enough 
to  make  you  deaf.  Poor  things !  it 
was  n't  that  they  were  uncomfortable, 
for  they  were  in  a  very  large  box,  with 
three  sides  made  of  slats,  so  they  had 


64  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

plenty  of  room  and  plenty  of  air ; 
but  of  course  they  were  frightened 
almost  to  death.  The  box  was  ad 
dressed  in  very  large  letters  to 

CAPTAIN  JOHNNY  CHAPMAN 

AND 
FIRST  LIEUTENANT  ROSE  CHAPMAN. 

Above  this  was  printed  in  still  bigger 
letters, 

THE   GARFIELD   CLUB. 

Some  of  the  men  who  were  at  the 
station  when  the  box  came,  were  made 
very  angry  by  this.  They  did  not 
know  anything  about  the  history  of 
the  cats  ;  and  of  course  they  could  not 


AND   HER   FAMILY.  65 

see  that  the  thing  had  any  meaning 
at  all,  except  as  an  insult  to  the  Gar- 
field  Club  in  Burnet.  It  was  just 
before  Election,  you  see,  and  at  that 
time  all  men  in  the  United  States  are 
so  excited  they  become  very  touchy 
on  the  subject  of  politics  ;  and  all  the 
Garfield  men  who  saw  this  great  box 
of  mewing  cats  labelled  the  "  Garfield 
Club "  thought  the  thing  had  been 
done  by  some  Democrat  to  play  off 
a  joke  on  the  Republicans.  So  they 
went  to  a  paint-shop,  and  got  some 
black  paint,  and  painted,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  box,  "  Hancock  Serenad- 
ers."  That  was  the  only  thing  they 
could  think  of  to  pay  off  the  Demo- 


66  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

crats  whom  they  suspected  of  the 
joke. 

Jerry  knew  what  it  meant  as  soon 
as  he  saw  the  box.  He  had  heard 
from  Johnny  and  Rosy  all  about  their 
wonderful  cats  over  at  Uncle  Frank's, 
and  how  terribly  they  missed  them ; 
but  it  had  never  crossed  anybody's 
mind  that  Uncle  Frank  would  send 
them  after  the  children.  Poor  Jerry 
did  n't  much  like  the  prospect  of  his 
ride  from  the  station  to  the  house  ; 
however,  he  put  the  box  into  the 
Rockaway,  got  home  with  it  as 
quickly  as  possible,  and  took  it  im 
mediately  to  the  barn. 

Then  he  went  into  the  house  with 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  67 

the  mail,  as  if  nothing  had  happened. 
Jerry  was  something  of  a  wag  in  his 
way,  as  well  as  Mr.  Frank  Welling 
ton  ;  so  he  handed  the  letters  to  Mrs. 
Chapman  without  a  word,  and  stood 
waiting  while  she  looked  them  over. 
As  soon  as  she  read  the  postal  she 
exclaimed,  — 

"Oh,  Jerry,  this  is  too  bad.  There's 
company  down  at  the  station ;  came 
by  the  three  o'clock  train.  You  '11 
have  to  go  right  back  and  get  them. 
I  wonder  who  it  can  be/' 

"  They  Ve  come,  ma'am/'  said 
Jerry  quietly. 

"  Come  ! "  exclaimed  Mrs.  Chap 
man  ;  "  come  ?  Why,  where  are 


68  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

they  ? "  and  she  ran  out  on  the  piazza. 
Jerry  stopped  her,  and  coming  nearer 
said,  in  a  low,  mysterious  tone,- 
"  They  're  in  the  barn,  ma'am  ! ': 
"  Jerry  !     In  the  barn  !     What  do 
you  mean  ?"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Chap 
man.      And   she  looked   so  puzzled 
and  frightened  that  Jerry  could  not 
keep  it  up  any  longer. 

"  It 's  the  cats,  ma'am/'  he  said; 
"them  cats  of  Johnny's  from  Mr. 
Wellington's  :  all  of  'em.  The  men 
to  the  station  said  there  was  forty; 
but  I  don't  think  there 's  more  'n 
twenty  ;  mebbe  not  so  many  's  that ; 
they  're  rowin'  round  so,  you  can't 
count  'em  very  well." 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  69 

"Oh,  dear!  oh,  dear!"  said  Mrs. 
Chapman.  "  What  won't  Frank 
Wellington  do  next ! '  Then  she 
found  her  mother,  and  told  her,  and 
they  both  went  out  to  the  barn  to  look 
at  the  cats.  Jerry  lifted  up  one  of 
the  slats  so  that  he  could  put  in  a 
pail  of  milk  for  them ;  and  as  soon 
as  they  saw  friendly  faces,  and  heard 
gentle  voices,  and  saw  the  milk,  they 
calmed  down  a  little,  but  they  were 
still  terribly  frightened.  Grandma 
Jameson  could  not  help  laughing, 
but  she  was  not  at  all  pleased. 

"  I  think  Frank  Wellington  might 
have  been  in  better  business/'  she 
said.  "We  do  not  want  any  more 


70  MAMMY  TITTLE  BACK 

cats  here ;  the  winter  is  coming,  when 
they  must  be  housed.  What  is  to  be 
done  with  the  poor  beasts  ? " 

"  Oh,  we  '11  give  most  of  them 
away,  mother/'  said  Mrs.  Chapman. 
"  They  're  all  splendid  kittens  ;  any 
body  '11  be  glad  of  them/' 

"  I  do  not  think  thee  will  find  any 
dearth  of  cats  in  the  village  ;  it  seems 
to  be  something  most  families  are 
supplied  with :  but  thee  can  do  what 
thee  likes  with  them ;  they  can't  be 
kept  here,  that  is  certain/'  replied 
Mrs.  Jameson  placidly,  and  went 
into  the  house. 

Mrs.  Chapman  and  Jerry  decided 
that  the  cats  should  be  left  in  the  box 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  71 

till  morning,  and  the  children  should 
not  be  told  until  then  of  their  arrival. 

When  Mrs.  Chapman  was  putting 
Johnny  and  Rosy  to  bed,  she  said,- 

"  Johnny,  if  Uncle  Frank  should 
send  your  cats  over  here,  you  would 
have  to  make  up  your  mind  to  give 
some  of  them  away.  You  know, 
Grandma  could  n't  keep  them  all ! " 

"  What  makes  you  think  he  '11  send 
them  over?"  cried  Johnny.  "He 
did  n't  say  he  would." 

"  No,"  replied  Mrs.  Chapman,  "  I 
know  he  did  n't ;  but  I  think  it  is  very 
likely  he  found  them  more  trouble, 
after  you  went  away,  than  he  thought 
they  would  be." 


72  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

"  I  got  them  fixed  real  comfortable 
for  the  winter/'  said  Johnny.  "  Their 
house  is  all  boarded  up,  so  't  will  be 
warm;  but  I  'd  give  anything  to  have 
them  here.  There  's  plenty  of  room 
in  the  barn.  They  need  n't  even  come 
into  the  house/' 

It  took  a  good  deal  of  reasoning 
and  persuading  to  bring  Johnny  to 
consent  to  the  giving  away  of  any  of 
his  beloved  cats,  in  case  they  were 
sent  over  from  Mendon ;  but  at  last 
he  did,  and  he  and  Rosy  fell  asleep 
while  they  were  trying  to  decide  which 
ones  they  would  keep,  and  which  ones 
they  would  give  away,  in  case  they 
had  to  make  the  choice. 


V. 

IN  the  morning,  after  breakfast,  the 
news  was  told  them,  that  the  cats  had 
arrived  the  night  before  and  were  in 
the  barn.  Almost  before  the  words 
were  out  of  their  mother's  mouth  they 
were  off  like  lightning  to  see  them. 
Jerry  was  on  hand  ready  to  open  the 
box,  and  the  whole  family  gathered 
to  see  the  prisoners  set  free.  What 
a  scene  it  was !  As  soon  as  the  slats 
were  broken  enough  to  give  room, 


74  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

out  the  cats  sprang,  like  wild  crea 
tures,  heads  over  heels,  heels  over 
heads,  the  whole  thirteen  in  one  tum 
bling  mass.  They  ran  in  all  directions 
as  fast  as  they  could  run,  poor  Rosy 
and  Johnny  in  vain  trying  to  catch  so 
much  as  one  of  them. 

"They're  crazy  like,"  said  Jerry; 
"  they  Ve  been  scared  enough  to  kill 
'em  ;  but  they  '11  come  back  fast 
enough.  Ye  need  n't  be  afeard,"  he 
added  kindly  to  Johnny,  who  was 
ready  to  burst  out  crying,  to  see  even 
his  beloved  Spitfire  darting  away  like 
a  strange  wildcat  of  the  woods.  Sure 
enough,  very  soon  the  little  ones  be 
gan  to  stick  their  heads  out  from 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  75 

behind  beams  and  out  of  corners, 
and  to  take  cautious  steps  towards 
Johnny,  whose  dear  voice  they  recog 
nized  as  he  kept  saying,  pityingly,  - 

"  Poor  kitties,  poor  kitties,  come 
here  to  me;  poor  kitties,  don't  you 
know  me?"  In  a  few  minutes  he 
had  Spitfire  in  his  arms,  and  Rosy 
had  Blacky,  the  one  she  had  always 
loved  best.  Mammy  Tittleback,  Ju 
niper,  and  Mousiewary  had  escaped 
out  of  the  barn,  and  disappeared  in 
the  woods  along  the  mill-race.  They 
were  much  more  frightened  than  the 
kittens,  and  had  reason  to  be,  for  they 
knew  very  well  that  it  was  an  extraor 
dinary  thing  which  had  happened  to 


76  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

them,  whereas  the  little  ones  did 
not  know  but  it  often  happened 
to  cats  to  be  packed  up  in  boxes 
and  take  journeys  in  railway  trains, 
and  now  that  they  saw  Johnny  and 
Rosy,  they  thought  everything  was 
all  right. 

In  the  mean  time  the  cats  of  the 
house,  Snowball,  Gregory,  Stonepile, 
and  Lappit,  hearing  the  commotion 
and  caterwauling  in  the  barn,  had 
come  out  to  see  what  was  going  on. 
On  the  threshold  they  all  stopped, 
stock  still,  set  up  their  backs,  and 
began  to  growl.  The  little  kittens 
began  to  sneak  off  again  towards 
hiding-places.  Snowball  came  for- 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  ^^ 

ward,  and  looked  as  if  she  would  make 
fight,  but  Johnny  drove  her  back,  and 
said  very  sharply,  "  Scat !  scat !  we 
don't  want  you  here/'  On  hearing 
these  words,  Gregory  and  the  others 
turned  round  and  walked  scornfully 
away,  as  if  they  would  not  take  any 
more  notice  of  such  young  cats ;  but 
Snowball  was  very  angry,  and  con 
tinued  to  hang  about  the  barn,  every 
now  and  then  looking  in,  and  growl 
ing,  and  swelling  up  her  tail,  and  she 
never  would,  to  the  last,  make  friends 
with  one  of  the  new-comers. 

Release  had  come  too  late  for  poor 
Gregory  Second  and  Lily.  They  had 
never  been  strong  as  the  others,  and 


78  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

the  fright  of  the  journey  was  too  much 
for  them.  Early  on  the  morning 
after  their  arrival,  Gregory  Second 
was  found  dead  in  the  barn.  The 
children  gave  him  a  grand  funeral, 
and  buried  him  in  the  meadow  be 
hind  the  house.  There  were  staying 
now  at  Mrs.  Jameson's  two  other 
grandchildren  of  hers,  Johnny  and 
Katy  Wells  ;  and  the  two  Johnnies 
and  Katy  and  Rosy  went  out,  in  a 
solemn  procession,  into  the  field  to 
bury  Gregory.  Each  child  carried  a 
cat  in  its  arms,  and  the  rest  of  the  cats 
followed  on,  and  stood  still,  very  seri 
ous,  while  Gregory  was  laid  in  the 
ground.  The  boys  filled  up  the  grave, 


AND  HER  FAMILY.  79 

made  a  good-sized  mound  over  it,  and 
planted  a  little  evergreen-tree  at  one 
end.  They  also  set  very  firmly,  on 
the  top  of  the  mound,  what  Johnny 
called  "  a  kind  of  marble  monument/' 
It  was  the  marble  bottom  of  an  old 
kerosene  lamp.  When  this  was  all 
done,  the  children  sang  a  hymn, 
which  they  had  learned  in  their 
school. 

THE   OLD   BLACK   CAT. 

WHO  so  full  of  fun  and  glee, 

Happy  as  a  cat  can  be  ? 

Polished  sides  so  nice  and  fat, 
Oh,  how  I  love  the  old  black  cat ! 
Poor  kitty  !  O  poor  kitty  ! 

Sitting  so  cozy  under  the  stove. 


8o  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

CHORUS. 

Pleasant,  purring,  pretty  pussy, 
Frisky,  full  of  fun  and  fussy  ? 
Mortal  foe  of  mouse  and  rat, 
Oh,  I  love  the  old  black  cat ! 
Yes,  I  do  ! 

Some  will  like  the  tortoise-shell ; 

Others  love  the  white  so  well  ; 
Let  them  choose  of  this  or  that, 
But  give  to  me  the  old  black  cat. 
Poor  kitty  !  O  poor  kitty ! 

Sitting  so  cozy  under  the  stove. 

CHORUS. 
Pleasant,  purring,  pretty  pussy,  etc, 

When  the  boys,  to  make  her  run, 
Call  the  dogs  and  set  them  on, 
Quickly  I  put  on  my  hat, 
And  fly  to  save  the  old  black  cat. 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  81 

Poor  kitty  !  O  poor  kitty  ! 
Sitting  so  cozy  under  the  stove. 

CHORUS. 
Pleasant,  purring,  pretty  pussy,  etc. 

This  song  had  come  to  Burnet 
years  before,  in  a  magazine.  There 
was  no  other  printed  copy  of  the 
song;  but,  year  after  year,  the  Burnet 
children  had  sung  it  at  school,  and 
every  child  in  town  knew  it  by  heart. 

It  cannot  be  said  to  be  exactly  a  fu 
neral  hymn,  and  Gregory  was  a  gray 
cat  and  not  a  black  one,  which  made 
it  still  less  appropriate  ;  but  it  was 
the  only  song  they  knew  about  cats, 
so  they  sang  it  slow,  and  made  it  do. 


82  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

Just  as  they  were  finishing  it  a  big 
dog  came  darting  down  from  the  other 
side  of  the  mill-race,  leaped  over  the 
race,  barking  loud,  and  sprang  in 
among  them. 

This  gave  the  relatives  a  great 
scare.  All  those  that  were  standing 
on  the  ground  scrambled  up  the  near 
est  trees  as  fast  as  they  could ;  and 
even  those  that  were  being  held  in  the 
children's  arms  scratched  and  fought 
to  get  down,  that  they  might  run  away 
too.  So  the  funeral  ended  very  sud 
denly  in  great  disorder,  and  with  alto 
gether  more  laughing  than  seemed 
proper  at  a  funeral. 

The  next  day  Lily  died  and  was 


AND  HER  FAMILY. 


buried  by  the  side  of  Gregory,  but 
with  less  ceremony  than  had  been 
used  the  day  before.  Over  her  grave 
was  put  a  high  glass  monument,  which 
made  much  more  show  than  the  one 
of  marble  on  Gregory's  grave.  That 
was  only  a  flat  slab,  which  lay  on  the 
grass ;  but  Lily's  was  a  glass  lamp 
which  had  by  some  accident  got  a 
little  broken.  This,  set  bottom  side 
up,  pressed  down  firmly  into  the  earth, 
made  a  fine  show,  and  could  be  seen 
a  good  way  off,  "  the  way  a  monu 
ment  ought  to  be,"  Johnny  said;  and 
he  searched  diligently  to  find  some 
thing  equally  high  and  imposing  for 
Gregory's  grave,  but  could  not  find  it. 


84  MAMMY  TITTLEBACK 

In  the  course  of  a  few  days  the  re 
maining  kittens  and  cats  were  all  given 
away,  except  Mammy  Tittleback  and 
Blacky.  They  were  selected  as  be 
ing  on  the  whole  the  best  ones  to 
keep.  Mammy  Tittleback  is  so  good 
a  mouser  that  she  would  be  a  useful 
member  of  any  family,  and  Blacky 
bids  fair  to  grow  up  as  good  a  mouser 
as  she.  What  became  of  Juniper  and 
Mousiewary  was  never  known.  They 
were  seen  now  and  then  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  house,  but  never  stayed 
long,  and  finally  disappeared  alto 
gether. 

Mammy  Tittleback,  I  am  sorry  to 
say,  did  not  take  the  loss  of  her  fam- 


AND  HER   FAMILY.  85 

ily  in  the  least  to  heart ;  after  the  first 
week  or  two  she  seemed  as  contented 
and  as  much  at  home  in  her  new  quar 
ters  as  if  she  had  lived  there  all  her 
life.  What  she  has  thought  about  it 
all,  there  is  no  knowing;  but  as  she 
and  Blacky  lie  asleep  under  the  stove, 
of  an  evening,  you  'd  never  suspect,  to 
look  at  them,  that  they  had  had  such 
a  fine  summer  house  to  live  in  last 
year,  or  had  ever  belonged  to  a  "  Gar- 
field  Club,"  and  taken  a  railway  jour 
ney. 


THE     OLD     BLACK     CAT. 


I/ 


1.  Who  so   full     of 

2.  Some  will  like   the 

3.  When  the  boys,  to 


fun  and  glee.        Hap-py  as     a         cat   can  be? 
tortoise  shell,        Others       love  the      white  so  well ; 
make  her  run,       Call   the   dogs  and    set  them  on, 


Polished  sides  so  nice  and  fat  —  Oh,  how  I  love  the  old  black  cat. 
Let  them  choose  of  this  or  that,  But  give  to  me  the  old  black  cat. 
Quickly  I  put  on  my  hat  And  fly  to  save  the  old  black  cat. 


joE      I     -zfrrczzh—  ~z -i— :^      t^r~i — !*~        ~c 


Poor  kit    -    ty!  O,  poor  kit    -    ty ! 


^=?=^-  ===  - 

I      -=\====    h 


THE   OLD  BLACK  CAT. 


87 


*=S=£ 


Sit  -  ting     so  co  -  zy  un  der       the  stove. 


i/  t/     V  V     V 

Pleasant,   purring,     pretty  pussy,  Frisky,     full  of    fuu  and  fussy,  Mortal  foe  of 


t^  ^.^  ^. 

=zq=--    i  TT  1  1  |-Mr~ 

ttdtt^^ 

—  -  -  tr_  ^_  ^=^_Ly_^_^  ^  'i^-  -  '       -- 


w 
mouse  and  rat,      O,        I        love    the       old  black  cat.     Yes,     I          do. 


[From  the  "  Schoolday  Magazine,"  March,  1873.] 


PREFACE. 

THIS  story  of  Mammy  Tittleback  and 
her  family  was  told  to  me  last  winter,  at 
Christmas  time,  in  Grandma  Jameson's 
house,  by  Johnny  and  Rosy  Chapman  and 
their  mother,  and  by  Phil  Wellington  and 
his  mother,  and  by  Johnny  and  Katy  Wells, 
and  by  Grandma  Jameson  herself,  and  by 
"  Aunt  Maggie  "  Jameson,  Grandma  Jame 
son's  daughter,  and  by  "Aunt  Hannah," 
Grandma  Jameson's  sister,  and  by  "  Cousin 
Fanny,"  the  postmistress  who  had  the  first 


90  PREFACE. 


sight  of  the  postal  card,  and  by  Jerry,  who 
had  the  worst  of  the  whole  business,  bring 
ing  the  box  of  cats  from  the  railway-station 
up  to  the  house. 

I  don't  mean  that  each  of  these  persons 
told  me  the  whole  story  from  beginning  to 
end.  I  was  not  at  Grandma  Jameson's  long 
enough  for  that ;  I  was  there  only  Christ 
mas  day  and  the  day  after.  But  I  mean 
that  all  these  people  told  me  parts  of  the 
story,  and  every  time  the  subject  was  men 
tioned  somebody  would  remember  some 
thing  new  about  it,  and  the  longer  we  talked 
about  it  the  more  funny  things  kept  coming 
up  to  the  very  last,  and  I  don't  doubt  that 
when  I  go  there  again  next  summer,  Phil 
and  Johnny  will  begin  where  they  left  off  and 


PREFACE.  91 


tell  me  still  more  things  as  droll  as  these. 
The  story  about  the  little  kittens  swim 
ming  over  the  brook  I  did  not  hear  until  the 
morning  I  was  coming  away.  Just  as  I  was 
busy  packing  Phil  came  running  up  to  my 
room,  saying,  "  There  's  one  more  thing  we 
forgot  the  cats  did,"  and  then  he  told  me 
the  story  of  the  swimming.  Then  I  said, 
"  Tell  me  some  more,  Phil ;  I  don't  believe 
you  Ve  told  me  half  yet." 

"Well,"  he  said,  "you  see,  they  were  doing 
things  all  the  time,  and  we  didn't  think 
much  about  'em.  That's  the  reason  we 
can't  remember,"  which  remark  of  Phil's  has 
a  good  lesson  in  it  when  you  come  to  look 
at  it  closely.  It  would  make  a  good  text 
for  a  little  sermon  to  preach  to  children 


92  PREFA  CE. 


that  very  often  have  to  say,  "  I  forgot,"  about 
something  they  ought  to  have  done. 

Things  that  we  think  very  much  about 
we  never  forget,  any  more  than  we  do  per 
sons  that  we  love  very  dearly  and  think 
very  much  of.  So  "  I  forgot "  is  not  very 
much  of  an  excuse  for  not  having,  done  a 
thing ;  it  is  only  another  way  of  saying  "  I 
did  n't  attend  to  it  enough  to  make  it  stay 
in  my  mind,"  or,  "  I  did  n't  care  enough  about 
it  to  remember  it." 

I  heard  the  greater  part  of  this  story  on 
Christmas  night.  Johnny  and  Rosy  and 
Phil  and  Katy  had  a  great  frolic  telling  it. 
In  the  midst  of  it  Johnny  exclaimed,  "  Don't 
you  want  to  see  Mammy  Tittleback?" 

"  Indeed  I  do,"  I  replied.     So  he  ran  out 


PREFACE.  93 


to  the  barn  and  brought  her  in  in  his  arms. 
Snowball  was  already  there.  She  was  lying 
on  the  hearth  when  Mammy  Tittleback  was 
brought  in,  and  I  began  to  praise  her,  say 
ing  what  a  beauty  she  was,  and  how  hand 
some  the  yellow,  black,  and  white  colors  in 
her  fur  were.  Snowball  got  up,  and  began 
to  walk  about  uneasily  and  to  rub  up  against 
us,  as  if  she  wanted  to  be  noticed  also. 

"Snowball's  a  nice  cat  too,"  said  Phil, 
picking  her  up,  "  'most  as  good  as  Mammy 
Tittleback/' 

"  Blacky 's  the  nicest,"  said  Rosy,  who 
was  rocking  in  her  rocking-chair,  and  hug 
ging  Blacky  up  close  to  her  face.  "  Blacky 's 
the  nicest  of  them  all."  Upon  which  every 
body  fell  to  telling  what  a  tyrant  Blacky  had 


94  PREFACE. 


become;-  how  she  would  be  held  in  some 
body's  lap  all  the  time,  and  that  even  Aunt 
Hannah  had  had  to  give  up  to  Blacky. 
Even  Aunt  Hannah,  whom  nobody  in  the 
house,  not  even  Grandma  Jameson  herself, 
ever  thinks  of  going  against  in  the  smallest 
thing,  because  she  is  such  a  beautiful  and 
venerable  old  lady,  —  even  Aunt  Hannah 
had  had  to  give  up  to  Blacky. 

Aunt  Hannah  is  over  eighty  years  old 
but  she  is  never  idle.  She  never  has  time 
to  hold  cats  in  her  lap ;  and,  besides,  I  do 
not  think  she  loves  cats  so  well  as  the  rest 
of  her  family  do.  As  often  as  Blacky 
jumped  up  in  her  lap,  Aunt  Hannah  would 
very  gently  set  her  on  the  floor ;  but  in  five 
minutes  Blacky  would  be  up  again.  At  last, 


PREFACE.  95 


when  she  found  Aunt  Hannah  really  would 
not  hold  her  in  her  lap,  she  took  it  in  her 
head  to  lie  in  Aunt  Hannah's  work-basket, 
close  by  her  side  ;  and  just  as  often  as  Aunt 
Hannah  put  her  out  of  her  lap  she  would 
spring  into  the  work-basket,  and  curl  her 
self  up  like  a  little  puff-ball  of  fur  among 
the  spools.  This  was  even  worse  to  Aunt 
Hannah  than  to  have  her  on  her  knees,  and 
she  would  take  her  out  of  the  work-bas 
ket  less  gently  than  she  lifted  her  out  of  her 
lap,  and  set  her  on  the  floor.  Then  Blacky 
would  jump  right  up  on  her  lap  again,  and 
so  they  had  it,  —  Aunt  Hannah  and  Blacky, 
—  first  lap,  and  then  work-basket,  till  poor 
Aunt  Hannah  got  as  nearly  out  of  patience 
as  a  lovely  old  lady  of  the  Society  of  Friends 


96  PREFACE. 


ever  allows  herself  to  be.  She  got  so  out  of 
patience  that  she  made  a  very  nice,  soft, 
round  cushion  stuffed  with  feathers,  and  kept 
it  always  at  hand  for  Blacky  to  lie  on.  Then 
when  Blacky  jumped  on  her  knees,  she  laid 
her  on  the  cushion  ;  instantly  Blacky  would 
spring  into  the  work-basket,  and  when  she 
took  her  out  of  that,  right  up  in  her  lap 
again.  On  that  cushion  she  would  not  lie. 
At  last  Aunt  Hannah  was  heard  to  say,  "  I 
believe  it  is  of  no  use,  I  '11  have  to  give  up 
to  thee,  little  cat ;  "  and  now  Blacky  lies  in 
Aunt  Hannah's  work-basket  whenever  she 
feels  like  lying  there  instead  of  in  Rosy's 
little  chair  or  in  somebody's  lap ;  and  I 
dare  say  by  the  time  I  go  to  Burnet  again, 
I  shall  find  that  Aunt  Hannah  has  given  up 


Now  Blackie  lies  in  Aunt  Hannah's  work-basket  whenever  che  feeb  like  lying 
there,"— PAGE  96. 


PREFACE.  97 


in  the  matter  of  the  lap  also,  and  is  holding 
Blacky  on  her  knees  as  many  hours  a  day 
as  anybody  else  in  the  house. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  discussion 
among  the  children  as  to  the  places  where 
the  little  kittens  were  living  now,  and  as  to 
which  ones  were  given  away,  and  which 
ones  had  run  away. 

I  suppose  when  Jerry  had  a  half-dozen 
kittens  to  give  away  all  at  once,  he  could  n't 
stop  to  select  them  very  carefully,  or  to  sort 
them  out  by  name,  or  recollect  where  each 
one  went. 

"  I  know  where  Spitfire  is,"  said  Johnny ; 
"  I  saw  him  yesterday." 

"  Where  ?  "  said  Phil. 

"  I  won't  tell,"  said  Johnny,  "  but  I  know." 


98  PREFACE. 


"Juniper,  he  ran  away.  He'll  take  care 
of  himself.  He  used  to  come  back  once  in 
a  while.  We  'd  see  him  round  the  barn. 
Mousiewary,  she  comes  sometimes  now ;  I 
saw  her  the  other  day.  She  's  real  smart." 

"  Well,  old  Mammy  Tittleback  's  the  best 
of  'em  all,"  said  Phil,  catching  her  up  and 
trying  to  make  her  snuggle  down  in  his  lap. 
But  Mammy  Tittleback  did  not  like  to  be 
held.  She  wriggled  away,  jumped  down, 
and  walked  restlessly  toward  the  kitchen 
door.  Phil  followed,  opened  the  door,  and 
let  her  go  out.  "  She  won't  let  you  pet  her," 
he  said ;  "  she 's  a  real  business  cat,  she 
always  was.  She  likes  to  stay  in  the  barn 
and  hunt  rats  better  than  anything  in  the 
world,  except  when  it 's  so  cold  she  can't." 


PREFACE.  99 


"  She  used  to  let  me  hold  her  sometimes 
in  the  summer,"  said  Rosy. 

"  Oh,  that  was  different.  She  had  to  be 
staying  round  then,  doing  nothing,  to  look 
after  the  kittens,"  replied  Phil.  "  She  was  n't 
wasting  any  time  then  being  held,  but  she 
won't  let  you  hold  her  now  more  Jn  two 
or  three  minutes  at  a  time.  She  jumps 
right  down,  and  goes  off  as  if  she  was  sent 
for." 

After  the  children  had  gone  to  bed,  Mrs. 
Chapman  told  us  a  very  droll  part  of  the 
history  of  the  cats'  journey, — what  might 
be  called  the  sequel  to  it.  The  Democrats 
were  not  the  only  people  in  the  village  who 
took  offence  at  the  sight  of  the  cats.  There 
is  a  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 


ioo  PREFACE. 


to  Animals  in  Burnet,  and  some  of  the  peo 
ple  who  belonged  to  this  society,  when  they 
heard  of  the  affair,  took  it  into  their  heads 
that  Mr.  Frank  Wellington  had  done  a  very 
cruel  thing  in  shutting  so  many  cats  up  in 
a  box  together.  It  was  a  very  good  illus 
tration  of  the  way  stories  grow  big  in  many 
times  telling,  the  wray  the  number  of  those 
cats  went  on  growing  bigger  and  bigger 
every  time  the  story  was  told.  At  last  they 
got  it  up  as  high  as  forty-five ;  and  there 
really  were  some  people  in  town  who  be 
lieved  that  forty-five  cats  had  come  from 
Mendon  to  Burnet  in  that  box.  "  Jerry 
says  they  haven't  ever  had  it  lower  than 
twenty-five,"  said  Mrs.  Chapman.  "  It  runs 
all  the  way  from  forty-five  to  twenty-five, 


PREFACE.  10 1 


but  twenty-five  is  the  lowest,  and  there  was 
one  man  in  the  town  who  really  did  threaten 
pretty  seriously  to  enter  a  complaint  against 
Frank  Wellington  with  the  society,  but  I 
guess  he  was  laughed  out  of  it.  It  is  al 
most  a  pity  he  did  n't  do  it,  it  would  have 
been  such  a  joke  all  round." 

This  is  all  I  have  to  tell  you  about 
Mammy  Tittleback  and  her  family  now. 
When  I  go  back  to  Burnet  next  summer,  I 
hope  I  shall  find  her  with  six  more  little 
kittens,  and  Johnny  and  Rosy  as  happy 
with  them  as  they  were  with  Spitfire, 
Blacky,  Coaley,  Limbab,  Lily,  and  Gregory 
Second. 

THE    END. 


THE    HUNTER    CATS 


OF 


CONNORLOA. 


CONNORLOA. 


THE 


HUNTER    CATS 


OF 


CONNORLOA. 


BY     HELEN    JACKSON 
(H.  //.), 

AUTHOR  OF  "LETTERS  FROM  A  CAT,"    "MAMMY  TITTLEBACK  AND  HER 

FAMILY,"    ETC. 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON: 
ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 

1886. 


Copyright,  1884, 
BY  ROBERTS  BROTHERS. 


THE    HUNTER    CATS 


OF 


CONNORLOA. 


I. 

ONCE  on  a  time,  there  lived  in  California 
a  gentleman  whose  name  was  Connor, — 
Mr.  George  Connor.  He  was  an  orphan, 
and  had  no  brothers  and  only  one  sis 
ter.  This  sister  was  married  to  an  Italian 
gentleman,  one  of  the  chamberlains  to 
the  King  of  Italy.  She  might  almost  as 
well  have  been  dead,  so  far  as  her  brother 
George's  seeing  her  was  concerned ;  for 


10  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

he,  poor  gentleman,  was  much  too  ill  to 
cross  the  ocean  to  visit  her  ;  and  her 
husband  could  not  be  spared  from  his 
duties  as  chamberlain  to  the  King,  to  come 
with  her  to  America,  and  she  would  not 
leave  him  and  come  alone.  So  at  the  time 
my  story  begins,  it  had  been  many  years 
since  the  brother  and  sister  had  met,  and 
Mr.  Connor  had  quite  made  up  his  mind 
that  he  should  never  see  her  again  in  this 
world.  He  had  had  a  sorry  time  of  it  for 
a  good  many  years.  He  had  wandered 
all  over  the  world,  trying  to  find  a  cli 
mate  which  would  make  him  well.  He 
had  lived  in  Egypt,  in  Ceylon,  in  Italy,  in 
Japan,  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  in  the 
West  India  Islands.  Every  place  that  had 


OF  CONNORLOA.  n 

ever  been  heard  of  as  being  good  for  sick 
people,  he  had  tried ;  for  he  had  plenty  of 
money,  and  there  was  nothing  to  prevent 
his  journeying  wherever  he  liked.     He  had 
a   faithful    black   servant    Jim,   who   went 
with  him  everywhere^  and  took  the  best  of 
care  of  him ;  but  neither  the  money,  nor 
the  good  nursing,  nor  the  sea  air,  nor  the 
mountain   air,   nor  the   north,   south,   east 
or  west  air,  did  him  any  good.     He  only 
tired  himself  out  for  nothing,  roaming  from 
place  to  place ;  and  was  all  the  time  lonely, 
and  sad  too,  not  having  any  home.     So  at 
last  he  made  up  his  mind  that  he  would 
roam    no    longer;    that    he    would   settle 
down,   build   himself  a   house,   and    if  he 
could  not  be  well  and  strong  and  do  all  the 


12  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

things  he  liked  to,  he  would  at  least  have 
a  home,  and  have  his  books  about  him, 
and  have  a  good  bed  to  sleep  in,  and  good 
food  to  eat,  and  be  comfortable  in  all  those 
ways  in  which  no  human  being  ever  can  be 
comfortable  outside  of  his  own  house. 

He  happened  to  be  in  California  when 
he  took  this  resolution.  He  had  been 
there  for  a  winter ;  and  on  the  whole  had 
felt  better  there  than  he  had  felt  anywhere 
else.  The  California  sunshine  did  him 
more  good  than  medicine :  it  is  wonderful 
how  the  sun  shines  there !  Then  it  was 
never  either  very  hot  or  very  cold  in  the 
part  of  California  where  he  was ;  and  that 
was  a  great  advantage.  He  was  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  State,  only  thirty  miles 


OF  CONNORLOA.  13 

from  the  sea-shore,  in  San  Gabriel.  You 
can  find  this  name  "  San  Gabriel "  on  your 
atlas,  if  you  look  very  carefully.  It  is  in 
small  print,  and  on  the  Atlas  it  is  not 
more  than  the  width  of  a  pin  from  the 
water's  edge ;  but  it  really  is  thirty  miles, 
—  a  good  day's  ride,  and  a  beautiful  day's 
ride  too,  from  the  sea.  San  Gabriel  is  a  lit 
tle  village,  only  a  dozen  or  two  houses  in  it, 
and  an  old,  half-ruined  church,  —  a  Cath 
olic  church,  that  was  built  there  a  hundred 
years  ago,  when  the  country  was  first  set 
tled  by  the  Spaniards.  They  named  all 
the  places  they  settled,  after  saints;  and 
the  first  thing  they  did  in  every  place  was 
to  build  a  church,  and  get  the  Indians  to 
come  and  be  baptized,  and  learn  to  pray. 


14  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

They  did  not  call  their  settlements  towns  at 
first,  only  Missions ;  and  they  had  at  one 
time  twenty-one  of  these  Missions  on  the 
California  coast,  all  the  way  up  from  San 
Diego  to  Monterey ;  and  there  were  more 
than  thirty  thousand  Indians  in  them,  all 
being  taught  to  pray  and  to  work,  and 
some  of  them  to  read  and  write.  They 
were  very  good  men,  those  first  Spanish 
missionaries  in  California.  There  are  still 
alive  some  Indians  who  recollect  these 
times.  They  are  very  old,  over  a  hun 
dred  years  old ;  but  they  remember  well 
about  these  things. 

Most  of  the  principal  California  towns  of 
which  you  have  read  in  your  geographies 
were  begun  in  this  way.  San  Diego,  Santa 


OF  CONNORLOA.  15 

Barbara,  San  Luis  Obispo,  San  Rafael,  San 
Francisco,  Monterey,  Los  Angeles,  —  all 
of  these  were  first  settled  by  the  mission 
aries,  and  by  the  soldiers  and  officers  of  the 
army  who  came  to  protect  the  mission 
aries  against  the  savages.  Los  Angeles 
was  named  by  them  after  the  Virgin  Mary. 
The  Spanish  name  was  very  long,  "  Nues- 
tra  Senora  Reina  de  Los  Angeles,"  —  that 
means,  "  Our  Lady  the  Queen  of  the 
Angels."  Of  course  this  was  quite  too  long 
to  use  every  day ;  so  it  soon  got  cut  down 
to  simply  "  Los  Angeles,"  or  "  The  Angels," 
—  a  name  which  often  amuses  travellers  in 
Los  Angeles  to-day,  because  the  people  who 
live  there  are  not  a  bit  more  like  angels  than 
other  people ;  and  that,  as  we  all  know,  is 


1 6  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

very  unlike  indeed.  Near  Los  Angeles  is 
San  Gabriel,  only  about  fifteen  miles  away. 
In  the  olden  time,  fifteen  miles  was  not 
thought  any  distance  at  all ;  people  were 
neighbors  who  lived  only  fifteen  miles 
apart. 

There  are  a  great  many  interesting  sto 
ries  about  the  first  settlement  of  San  Ga 
briel,  and  the  habits  and  customs  of  the 
Indians  there.  They  were  a  very  polite 
people  to  each  other,  and  used  to  train 
their  children  in  some  respects  very  care 
fully.  If  a  child  were  sent  to  bring  water 
to  an  older  person,  and  he  tasted  it  on  the 
way,  he  was  made  to  throw  the  water  out 
and  go  and  bring  fresh  water;  when  two 
grown-up  persons  were  talking  together,  if 


OF  CONNORLOA.  17 

a  child  ran  between  them  he  was  told  that 
he  had  done  an  uncivil  thing,  and  would 
be  punished  if  he  did  it  again.  These  are 
only  specimens  of  their  rules  for  polite  be 
havior.  They  seem  to  me  as  good  as  ours. 
These  Indians  were  very  fond  of  flowers, 
of  which  the  whole  country  is  in  the  spring 
so  full,  it  looks  in  places  like  a  garden  bed ; 
of  these  flowers  they  used  to  make  long 
garlands  and  wreaths,  not  only  to  wear 
on  their  heads,  but  to  reach  way  down  to 
their  feet.  These  they  wore  at  festivals 
and  celebrations ;  and  sometimes  at  these 
festivals  they  used  to  have  what  they  called 
"  song  contests."  Two  of  the  best  singers, 
or  poets,  would  be  matched  together,  to  see 
which  could  sing  the  better,  or  make  the 


1 8  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

better  verses.  That  seems  to  me  a  more 
interesting  kind  of  match  than  the  spelling 
matches  we  have  in  our  villages.  But 
there  is  nothing  of  this  sort  to  be  seen 
in  San  Gabriel  now,  or  indeed  anywhere  in 
California.  The  Indians,  most  of  them, 
have  been  driven  away  by  the  white  peo 
ple  who  wanted  their  lands ;  year  by  year 
more  and  more  white  people  have  come, 
and  the  Indians  have  been  robbed  of  more 
and  more  of  their  lands,  and  have  died  off 
by  hundreds,  until  there  are  not  many  left. 
Mr.  Connor  was  much  interested  in 
learning  all  he  could  about  them,  and  col 
lecting  all  he  could  of  the  curious  stone 
bowls  and  pestles  they  used  to  make, 
and  of  their  baskets  and  lace  work.  He 


INDIAN   MAKING  BOWLS.  —  Page  19. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  19 

spent  much  of  his  time  riding  about  the 
country ;  and  whenever  he  came  to  an  In 
dian  hut  he  would  stop  and  talk  with  them, 
and  ask  if  they  had  any  stone  bowls  or  bas 
kets  they  would  like  to  sell.  The  bowls 
especially  were  a  great  curiosity.  Nobody 
knew  how  long  ago  they  had  been  made. 
When  the  missionaries  first  came  to  the 
country,  they  found  the  Indians  using  them ; 
they  had  them  of  all  sizes,  from  those  so 
large  that  they  are  almost  more  than  a  man 
can  lift,  down  to  tiny  ones  no  bigger  than  a 
tea-cup.  But  big  and  little,  they  wrere  all 
made  in  the  same  way  out  of  solid  stone, 
scooped  out  in  the  middle,  by  rubbing 
another  stone  round  and  round  on  them. 
You  would  think  it  would  have  taken  a  life- 


20  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

time  to  make  one ;  but  they  seem  to  have 
been  plenty  in  the  olden  time.  Even  yet, 
people  who  are  searching  for  such  curiosi 
ties  sometimes  find  big  grave-mounds  in 
which  dozens  of  them  are  buried,  —  buried 
side  by  side  with  the  people  who  used  to 
eat  out  of  them.  There  is  nothing  left  of 
the  people  but  their  skulls  and  a  few 
bones ;  but  the  bowls  will  last  as  long  as 
the  world  stands. 

Now  I  suppose  you  are  beginning  to 
wonder  when  I  am  coming  to  the  Hunter 
Cats !  I  am  coming  to  them  just  the  way 
Mr.  Connor  did, —  by  degrees.  I  want  you 
to  know  about  the  place  he  lived  in,  and 
how  he  used  to  amuse  himself,  before  he 


OF  CONNORLOA.  21 

decided  to  build  his  house ;  and  then  I 
must  tell  you  about  the  house,  and  then 
about  the  children  that  came  to  live  with 
him  in  it,  and  then  about  the  Chinamen 
that  came  to  do  his  work,  and  about  his 
orange-trees,  and  the  gophers  that  gnawed 
the  bark  off  them,  and  the  rabbits  that  bur 
rowed  under  his  vines.  Oh !  it  will  be  a 
good  many  pages  yet  before  I  can  possibly 
get  to  the  time  when  the  Hunter  Cats  come 
in.  But  I  will  tell  it  as  fast  as  I  can,  for  I 
dislike  long  stories  myself. 

The  village  of  San  Gabriel  is  in  a  beau 
tiful  broad  valley,  running  east  and  west. 
The  north  wall  of  the  valley  is  made  by  a 
range  of  mountains,  called  the  Sierra 
Madre ;  that  is  Spanish  and  means 


22  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

11  Mother  Mountains/'  They  are  grand 
mountains ;  their  tops  are  almost  solid 
stone,  all  sharp  and  jagged,  with  more 
peaks  and  ridges,  crowded  in  together, 
than  you  could  possibly  count.  At  the 
bottom,  they  reach  out  into  the  valley  by 
long  slopes,  which  in  the  olden  time  were 
covered  thick  with  trees  and  shrubs  ;  but 
now,  the  greater  part  of  these  have  been 
cut  down  and  cleared  off,  and  the  ground 
planted  full  of  orange-trees  and  grape 
vines.  If  you  want  to  see  how  it  looks  to 
have  solid  miles  upon  miles  of  orange 
orchards  and  vineyards  together,  you  must 
go  to  this  San  Gabriel  Valley.  There  is 
no  other  such  place  in  the  world. 

As    Mr.    Connor   rode  about,  day  after 


OF  CONNOR LO A.  23 

day,  and  looked  at  these  orchards  and  vine 
yards,  he  began  to  think  he  should  like  to 
have  some  too.  So  he  went  up  and  down 
along  the  base  of  the  mountains,  looking 
for  a  good  place.  At  last  he  found  one. 
It  was  strange  nobody  had  picked  it  out 
before.  One  reason  was  that  it  was  so 
wild,  and  lay  so  high  up,  that  it  would 
be  a  world  of  trouble,  and  cost  a  deal  of 
money,  to  make  a  road  up  to  it  and  to  clear 
the  ground.  But  Mr.  Connor  did  not  care 
for  that.  It  was  a  sort  of  ridge  of  the 
mountains,  and  it  was  all  grown  over  thick 
with  what  is  called  in  California  "  chap- 
paral."  That  is  not  the  name  of  any  one 
particular  shrub  or  tree;  it  means  a  mix 
ture  of  every  sort  and  kind.  You  all  know 


24  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

what  mixed  candy  is  !  Well,  "  chapparal  " 
is  mixed  bushes  and  shrubs ;  mixed  thick 
too !  From  a  little  way  off,  it  looks  as 
smooth  as  moss  ;  it  is  so  tangled,  and  the 
bushes  have  such  strong  and  tough  stems, 
you  can't  possibly  get  through  it,  unless 
you  cut  a  path  before  you  with  a  hatchet ; 
it  is  a  solid  thicket  all  the  way. 

As  Mr.  Connor  rode  to  and  fro,  in  front 
of  this  green  ridge,  he  thought  how  well 
a  house  would  look  up  there,  with  the 
splendid  mountain  wall  rising  straight  up 
behind  it.  And  from  the  windows  of  such 
a  house,  one  could  look  off,  not  only  over 
the  whole  valley,  but  past  the  hills  of  its 
southern  wall,  clear  and  straight  thirty 
miles  to  the  sea.  In  a  clear  day,  the  line  of 


OF  CONNORLOA.  25 

the  water  flashed  and  shone  there  like  a 
silver  thread. 

Mr.  Connor  used  to  sit  on  his  horse  by 
the  half  hour  at  a  time  gazing  at  this  hill 
side,  and  picturing  the  home  he  would  like 
to  make  there,  —  a  big  square  house  with 
plenty  of  room  in  it,  wide  verandas  on 
all  sides,  and  the  slope  in  front  of  it  one 
solid  green  orange  orchard.  The  longer 
he  looked  the  surer  he  felt  that  this  was 
the  thing  he  wanted  to  do. 

The  very  day  he  decided,  he  bought  the 
land ;  and  in  two  days  more  he  had  a  big 
force  of  men  hacking  away  at  the  chappa- 
ral,  burning  it,  digging  up  the  tough,  tan 
gled  roots  ;  oh,  what  slow  work  it  was ! 
Just  as  soon  as  a  big  enough  place  was 


26  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

cleared,  he   built  a   little  house  of  rough 
boards,  —  only  two  rooms  in  it;  and  there 

* 

he  went  to  live,  with  Jim. 

Now  that  he  had  once  begun  the  making 
of  his  house,  he  could  hardly  wait  for  it  to 
be  done;  and  he  was  never  happy  except 
when  he  was  overseeing  the  men,  hurry 
ing  them  and  working  himself.  Many  a 
tough  old  bush  he  chopped  down  with  his 
own  hands,  and  tugged  the  root  up;  and 
he  grew  stronger  every  day.  This  was  a 
kind  of  medicine  he  had  not  tried  before. 

A  great  part  of  the  bushes  were  "  man- 
zanita."  The  roots  and  lower  stems  of 
this  shrub  are  bright  red,  and  twisted 
almost  into  knots.  They  make  capital 
firewood ;  so  Mr.  Connor  had  them  all 


OF  CONNORLOA.  27 

piled  up  in  a  pile  to  keep  to  burn  in  his 
big  fireplaces ;  and  you  would  have 
laughed  to  see  such  a  wood-pile.  It  was 
almost  as  high  as  the  house ;  and  no  two 
sticks  alike,  —  all  prongs  and  horns,  and 
crooks  and  twists  ;  they  looked  like  mon 
ster's  back  teeth. 

At  last  the  house  was  done.  It  was  a 
big,  old-fashioned,  square  house,  with  a 
wide  hall  running  through  the  middle ;  on 
the  east  side  were  the  library  and  dining- 
room  ;  on  the  west,  the  parlor  and  a  big 
billiard-room ;  upstairs  were  four  large 
bedrooms ;  at  the  back  of  the  house,  a 
kitchen.  No  servants  were  to  sleep  in  the 
house.  Mr.  Connor  would  have  only 
Chinamen  for  servants ;  and  they  would 


28  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

sleep,  with  the  rest  of  his  Chinamen  labor 
ers,  in  what  he  called  the  Chinese  quarter, 
—  a  long,  low  wooden  building  still  farther 
up  on  the  hill.  Only  Jim  was  to  sleep  in 
the  house  with  Mr.  Connor. 

The  Chinese  quarter  was  a  very  com 
fortable  house ;  and  was  presided  over  by 
a  fat  old  Chinaman,  who  had  such  a  long 
queue  that  Jim  called  him  "  Long  Tail." 
His  name  was  See  Whong  Choo,  which, 
Jim  said,  was  entirely  too  long  to  pro 
nounce.  There  were  twenty  Chinamen  on 
the  place ;  and  a  funny  sight  it  was  to  see 
them  all  file  out  of  a  morning  to  their 
work,  every  one  with  what  looked  like  a 
great  dinner-plate  upside  down  on  his 
head  for  a  hat,  and  his  long,  black  hair 


OF  CONNORLOA.  29 

braided  in  a  queue,  not  much  bigger  than 
a  rat  tail,  hanging  down  his  back. 

People  in  California  are  so  used  to  see 
ing  Chinamen,  that  they  do  not  realize 
how  droll  they  look  to  persons  not  accus 
tomed  to  the  sight. 

Their  yellow  skins,  their  funny  little 
black  eyes,  set  so  slanting  in  their  heads 
that  you  can't  tell  half  the  time  whether 
they  are  looking  straight  at  you  or  not, 
their  shiny  shaved  heads  and  pig-tails,  are 
all  very  queer.  And  when  you  first  hear 
them  talking  together  in  their  own  tongue, 
you  think  it  must  be  cats  trying  to  learn 
English ;  it  is  a  mixture  of  caterwaul  and 
parrot,  more  disagreeable  in  sound  than 
any  language  I  ever  heard. 


30  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

About  a  year  after  Mr.  Connor  had 
moved  into  his  new  house,  he  got  a  let 
ter,  one  night,  which  made  him  very  un 
happy.  It  told  him  that  his  sister  and 
her  husband  were  dead ;  they  had  died, 
both  of  them  in  one  week,  of  a  dreadful 
fever.  Their  two  children  had  had  the 
fever  at  the  same  time,  but  they  were  get 
ting  well ;  and  now,  as  there  was  nobody 
in  Italy  to  take  care  of  them,  the  letter 
asked  what  should  be  done  with  them. 
Would  Mr.  Connor  come  out  himself,  or 
would  he  send  some  one  ?  The  Count 
and  his  wife  had  been  only  a  few  days'  ill, 
and  the  fever  had  made  them  delirious 
from  the  first,  so  that  no  directions  had 
been  given  to  any  one  about  the  children ; 


OF  CONNORLOA.  31 

and  there  the  two  poor  little  things  were, 
all  alone  with  their  nurse  in  their  apart 
ment  in  the  King's  palace.  They  had  had 
to  live  in  the  palace  always,  so  that  the 
Count  could  be  ready  to  attend  on  the 
King  whenever  he  was  wanted. 

Giuseppe  and  Maria  (those  were  their 
names)  never  liked  living  there.  The 
palace  was  much  too  grand,  with  its 
marble  staircases,  and  marble  floored 
rooms,  so  huge  and  cold ;  and  armed  soldiers 
for  sentinels,  standing  at  the  corners  and 
doors,  to  keep  people  from  going  into 
rooms  without  permission,  and  to  keep 
watch  also,  lest  somebody  should  get  in 
and  kill  the  King.  The  King  was  always 
afraid  of  being  killed ;  there  were  so  many 


32  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

unhappy  and  discontented  persons  in  Italy, 
who  did  not  want  him  to  be  King.  Just 
think  how  frightful  it  must  be  to  know 
every  day,  —  morning,  noon,  and  night, — 
that  there  was  danger  of  somebody's  com 
ing  stealthily  into  your  room  to  kill  you! 
Who  would  be  a  king  ?  It  used  to  make 
the  children  afraid  whenever  they  passed 
these  tall  soldiers  in  armor,  in  the  halls. 
They  would  hold  tight  to  each  other's 
hands,  and  run  as  fast  as  they  could,  past 
them  ;  and  when  they  got  out  in  the  open 
air,  they  were  glad  ;  most  of  all  when  their 
nurse  took  them  into  the  country,  where 
they  could  run  on  the  grass  and  pick 
flowers.  There  they  used  often  to  see  poor 
little  hovels  of  houses,  with  gardens,  and  a 


OF  CONNORLOA.  33 

donkey  and  chickens  in  the  yard,  and  chil 
dren  playing;  and  they  used  to  say  they 
wished  their  father  and  mother  were  poor, 
and  lived  in  a  house  like  that,  and  kept  a 
donkey.  And  then  the  nurse  would  tell 
them  they  were  silly  children ;  that  it  was 
a  fine  thing  to  live  in  a  palace,  and  have 
their  father  one  of  the  King's  officers,  and 
their  mother  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of 
the  Queen's  ladies ;  but  you  could  n't  have 
made  the  children  believe  it.  They  hated 
the  palace,  and  everything  about  it,  more 
and  more  every  day  of  their  lives. 

Giuseppe  was  ten,  and  Maria  was  seven. 
They  were  never  called  by  their  real 
names :  Giuseppe  was  called  Jusy,  and 
Maria  was  called  Rea  ;  Jusy  and  Rea,  no- 


34  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

body  would  ever  have  guessed  from  that, 
what  their  real  names  were.  Maria  is  pro 
nounced  Mahrea  in  Italy ;  so  that  was  the 
way  she  came  to  be  called  Rea  for  short 
ness.  Jusy  gave  himself  his  nickname 
when  he  was  a  baby,  and  it  had  always 
stuck  to  him  ever  since. 

It  was  enough  to  make  anybody's  heart 
ache  to  see  these  two  poor  little  things, 
when  they  first  got  strong  enough  to  totter 
about  after  this  fever ;  so  weak  they  felt, 
they  could  hardly  stand;  and  they  cried 
more  than  half  the  time,  thinking  about 
their  papa  and  mamma,  dead  and  buried 
without  their  even  being  able  to  kiss  them 
once  for  good-by.  The  King  himself  felt  so 
sorry  for  the  little  orphans,  he  came  to  speak 


OF  CONNORLOA.  35 

to  them ;  and  the  kind  Queen  came  almost 
every  day,  and  sent  them  beautiful  toys, 
and  good  things  to  eat ;  but  nothing  com 
forted  the  children. 

"  What  do  you  suppose  will  become  of 
us,  Jusy?"  Rea  often  said;  and  Jusy 
would  reply,  — 

"  I  don't  know,  Rea.  As  soon  as  I  'm  a 
man,  I  can  take  care  of  you  and  myself  too, 
easy  enough  ;  and  that  won't  be  a  great 
while.  I  shall  ask  the  King  to  let  me  be 
one  of  his  officers  like  papa." 

"  Oh,  no !  no  !  Jusy,"  Rea  would  reply. 
"  Don't !  Don't  let 's  live  in  this  horrid  pal 
ace.  Ask  him  to  give  you  a  little  house  in 
the  country,  with  a  donkey ;  and  I  will  cook 
the  dinner.  Caterina  will  teach  me  how." 


36  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

Caterina  was  their  nurse. 

"  But  there  would  n't  be  any  money  to 
pay  Caterina/'  Jusy  would  say. 

"  The  King  might  give  us  enough  for 
that,  Jusy.  He  is  so  kind.  I  'm  sure  he 
would,  don't  you  think  so  ? "  was  Rea's 
answer  to  this  difficulty. 

"  No,  "  said  Jusy,  "  I  don't  think  he 
would,  unless  I  earned  it.  Papa  had  to 
work  for  all  the  money  he  had." 

It  was  a  glad  day  for  the  children  when 
the  news  came  that  their  uncle  in  America 
was  going  to  send  for  them  to  come  and 
live  with  him ;  and  that  in  three  weeks  the 
man  who  was  to  take  them  there  would 
arrive.  This  news  came  over  by  tele 
graph,  on  that  wonderful  telegraph  wire, 


OF  CONNORLOA.  37 

down  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  Their 
kind  Uncle  George  thought  he  would  not 
leave  the  children  uncheered  in  their  sus 
pense  and  loneliness  one  minute  longer  than 
he  could  help ;  so  he  sent  the  message 
by  telegraph ;  and  the  very  day  after  this 
telegraphic  message  went,  Jim  set  out  for 
Italy. 

Jim  had  travelled  so  much  with  Mr. 
Connor  that  he  was  just  the  best  possible 
person  to  take  charge  of  the  children  on 
their  long  journey.  He  knew  how  to 
manage  everything ;  and  he  could  speak 
Italian  and  French  and  German  well 
enough  to  say  all  that  was  necessary  in 
places  where  no  English  was  spoken. 
Moreover,  Jim  had  been  a  servant  in  Mr. 


38  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

Connor's  father's  house  all  his  life ;  had 
taken  care  of  Mr.  Connor  and  his  sister 
when  they  were  a  little  boy  and  girl  togeth 
er,  just  as  Jusy  and  Rea  were  now.  He 
always  called  Mr.  Connor  "  Mr.  George," 
and  his  sister  "  Miss  Julia;  "  and  when  he 
set  out  to  go  for  the  children  he  felt  almost 
as  if  he  were  going  to  the  help  and  rescue 
of  his  own  grandchildren. 

Jusy  and  Rea  did  not  feel  that  they  were 
going  to  a  stranger;  for  they  had  heard 
about  their  Uncle  George  ever  since  they 
could  remember ;  and  all  about  "  Jim  " 
too.  Almost  every  year  Mr.  Connor  used 
to  send  his  sister  a  new  picture  of  himself; 
so  the  children  knew  very  well  how  he 
looked. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  39 

When  the  news  came  that  they  were  to 
go  to  America  and  live  with  him,  they  got 
out  all  of  these  pictures  they  could  find, 
and  ranged  them  in  a  line  on  the  mantel 
piece  in  their  parlor.  There  was  a  picture 
of  Jim  too,  as  black  as  charcoal.  At  first, 
Rea  had  been  afraid  of  this  ;  but  Jusy 
thought  it  was  splendid.  Every  morning 
the  lonely  little  creatures  used  to  stand  in 
front  of  this  line  of  pictures  and  say, 
"  Good-morning,  Uncle  George !  Good- 
morning  to  you,  Mr.  Black  Man!  How 
soon  will  you  get  here  ?  We  shall  be  very 
glad  to  see  you." 

It  was  over  a  month  before  he  arrived. 
The  children  had  been  told  that  he  might 
be  there  in  three  weeks  from  the  day  the 


40  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

despatch  came ;  and  as  soon  as  the  three 
weeks  were  ended,  they  began  almost  to 
hold  their  breaths  listening  for  him ;  they 
were  hardly  willing  to  stir  out  of  the 
palace  for  a  walk,  for  fear  he  might  come 
while  they  were  away.  Rea  watched  at 
the  windows,  and  Jusy  watched  at  the 
doorway  which  led  into  the  corridor. 

"  He  might  be  afraid  of  the  sentinel  at 
the  corner  there,"  he  said.  "  Caterina  says 
there  are  no  palaces  in  America." 

"  Goody ! "  interrupted  Rea,  "  I  'm  so 
glad." 

"  And  so  perhaps  he  has  never  seen  a 
man  in  armor  like  that ;  and  I  'd  better  be 
at  the  door  to  run  and  meet  him." 

All  their  clothes  were  packed  ready  for 


OF  CONNORLOA.  41 

the  journey ;  and  all  the  things  which  had 
belonged  to  their  mamma  were  packed  up 
too,  to  go  with  them.  The  huge  rooms 
looked  drearier  than  ever.  The  new  cham 
berlain's  wife  was  impatient  to  get  settled 
in  the  apartment  herself,  and  kept  com 
ing  to  look  at  it,  and  discussing,  in  the 
children's  presence,  where  she  would  put 
this  or  that  piece  of  furniture,  and  how  she 
would  have  her  pictures  hung. 

"  I  think  she  is  a  very  rude  lady,"  said 
Jusy.  "  The  Queen  said  these  were  our 
rooms  so  long  as  we  stayed,  just  the  same 
as  if  mamma  were  here  with  us ;  and  I 
think  I  see  her  coming  in  here  that  way 
if  mamma  was  here  !  " 


II. 


AFTER  all  their  precautions,  Jusy  and 
Rea  were  out  when  Jim  arrived.  They 
had  been  to  take  a  walk  with  Caterina;  and 
when  they  came  back,  as  they  passed  the 
big  sentinel  at  the  outside  gate,  he  nodded 
to  them  pleasantly,  and  said,  — 

"  He  has  come  ! — the  black  signor  from 
America."  ("  Signor  "  is  Italian  for  "  Mr.") 

You  see  everybody  in  the  palace,  from 
the  King  down  to  the  scullions  in  the 
kitchen,  was  interested  in  the  two  father- 


JUSY  AND  REA. 

He  has  come! — the  black  signer  from  America."  —  Page  42. 


THE  HUNTER   CATS.  43 

less  and  motherless  children,  and  glad  to 
hear  that  Jim  had  arrived. 

The  very  next  day  they  set  off.  Jim  was 
impatient  to  be  back  in  California  again ; 
there  was  nothing  to  wait  for.  Caterina 
was  greatly  relieved  to  find  that  he  did  not 
wish  her  to  go  with  him.  The  Queen  had 
said  she  must  go,  if  the  black  signor  wished 
it ;  and  Caterina  was  wretched  with  fright 
at  the  thought  of  the  journey,  and  of  the 
country  full  of  wild  beasts  and  savages. 
"  Worse  than  Africa,  a  hundred  times,'*  she 
said,  "  from  all  I  can  hear.  But  her  Maj 
esty  says  I  must  go,  if  I  am  needed.  I  'd 
rather  die,  but  I  see  no  way  out  of  it." 

When  it  came  to  bidding  Rea  good-by, 
however,  she  was  almost  ready  to  beg  to 


44  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

be  allowed  to  go.  The  child  cried  and 
clung  to  her  neck ;  and  Caterina  cried  and 
sobbed  too. 

But  the  wise  Jim  had  provided  himself 
with  a  powerful  helper.  He  had  bought 
a  little  white  spaniel,  the  tiniest  creature 
that  ever  ran  on  four  legs ;  she  was  no  more 
than  a  doll,  in  Rea's  arms ;  her  hair  was 
like  white  silk  floss.  She  had  a  blue  satin 
collar  with  a  gilt  clasp  and  padlock;  and  on 
the  padlock,  in  raised  letters,  was  the  name 
"  Fairy."  Jim  had  thought  of  this  in  New 
York,  and  bought  the  collar  and  padlock 
there;  and  the  dog  he  had  bought  only 
one  hour  before  they  were  to  set  out  on 
their  journey.  She  was  in  a  beautiful  little 
flannel-lined  basket ;  and  when  Rea  clung 


OF  CONNORLOA.  45 


to  Caterina's  neck  crying  and  sobbing,  Jim 
stepped  up  to  her  and  said,  — 

"  Don't  cry,  missy ;  here 's  your  little 
dog  to  take  care  of;  she  '11  be  scared  if  she 
sees  you  cry." 

"Mine!  Mine!  That  sweet  doggie!" 
cried  Rea.  She  could  not  believe  her  eyes. 
She  stopped  crying;  and  she  hardly  noticed 
when  the  Queen  herself  kissed  her  in  fare 
well,  so  absorbed  was  she  in  "  Fairy  "  and 
the  blue  satin  collar.  "  Oh,  you  are  a  very 
good  black  man,  Signor  Jim,"  she  cried. 
"  I  never  saw  such  a  sweet  doggie ;  I  shall 
carry  her  in  my  own  arms  all  the  way 
there." 

It  was  a  hard  journey;  but  the  children 
enjoyed  every  minute  of  it.  The  account 


46  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

of  all  they  did  and  saw,  and  the  good  times 
they  had  with  the  kind  Jim,  would  make 
a  long  story  by  itself;  but  if  I  told  it,  we 
should  never  get  to  the  Hunter  Cats ;  so  I 
will  not  tell  you  anything  about  the  jour 
ney  at  all  except  that  it  took  about  six 
weeks,  and  that  they  reached  San  Gabriel 
in  the  month  of  March,  when  everything 
was  green  and  beautiful,  and  the  country 
as  full  of  wild  flowers  as  the  children  had 
ever  seen  the  country  about  Florence  in 
Italy. 

Mr.  Connor  had  not  been  idle  while  Jim 
was  away.  After  walking  up  and  down 
his  house,  with  his  thinking-cap  on,  for  a 
few  days,  looking  into  the  rooms,  and 
trying  to  contrive  how  it  should  be  rear- 


OF  CONNORLOA.  47 

ranged  to  accommodate  his  new  and  unex 
pected  family,  he  suddenly  decided  to  build 
on  a  small  wing  to  the  house.  He  might 
as  well  arrange  it  in  the  outset  as  it  would 
be  pleasantest  to  have  it  when  Juiy  and 
Rea  were  a  young  gentleman  and  a  young 
lady,  he  thought.  What  might  do  for  them 
very  well  now,  while  they  were  little  chil 
dren,  would  not  do  at  all  when  they  were 
grown  up. 

So,  as  I  told  you,  Mr.  Connor  being  a 
gentleman  who  never  lost  any  time  in 
doing  a  thing  he  had  once  made  up  his 
mind  to,  set  carpenters  at  work  immedi 
ately  tearing  out  half  of  one  side  of  his 
new  house ;  and  in  little  over  a  month, 
there  was  almost  another  little  house 


48  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

joined  on  to  it.  There  was  a  good  big 
room  for  Rea's  bedroom,  and  a  small  room 
opening  out  of  it,  for  her  sitting-room ; 
beyond  this  another  room  in  which  her 
nurse  could  sleep,  while  she  needed  one, 
and  after  she  grew  older,  the  governess 
who  must  come  to  teach  her;  and  after 
she  did  not  need  any  governess,  the  room 
would  be  a  pleasant  thing  to  have  for  her 
young  friends  who  came  to  visit  her.  This 
kind  uncle  was  planning  for  a  good  many 
years  ahead,  in  this  wing  to  his  house. 

These  rooms  for  Rea  were  in  the  second 
story.  Beneath  them  were  two  large 
rooms,  one  for  Jusy,  and  one  for  Jim.  A 
pretty  stairway,  with  a  lattice-work  wall, 
went  up  outside  to  Rea's  room,  and  at  the 


OF  CONNORLOA.  49 

door  of  her  room  spread  out  into  a  sort  of 
loggia,  or  upstairs  piazza,  such  as  Mr.  Con 
nor  knew  she  had  been  used  to  in  Italy. 
In  another  year  this  stairway  and  loggia 
would  be  a  bower  of  all  sorts  of  vines, 
things  grow  so  fast  in  California. 

And  now  we  are  really  coming  to  the 
Cats.  They  had  arrived  before  the  chil 
dren  did. 

When  the  children  got  out  of  the  cars 
at  San  Gabriel,  there  stood  their  Uncle 
George  on  the  platform  waiting  for  them. 
Jusy  spied  him  first.  "  There 's  Uncle 
George,"  he  shouted,  and  ran  towards  him 
shouting,  "  Uncle  George !  Uncle  George! 
Here  we  are/' 


50  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

Rea  followed  close  behind,  holding  up 
Fairy.  "  Look  at  my  doggie  that  Signor 
black  Jim  gave  me,"  she  cried,  holding 
Fairy  up  as  high  as  she  could  reach ;  and 
in  the  next  minute  she  herself,  doggie  and 
all,  was  caught  up  in  Uncle  George's  arms. 

"  What  makes  you  cry,  Uncle  George  ?  " 
she  exclaimed ;  "  we  thought  you  would 
be  very  glad  to  see  us !  ' 

"  So  I  am,  you  dear  child/'  he  said.  "  I 
am  only  crying  because  I  am  so  glad." 

But  Jusy  knew  better,  and  as  soon  as 
he  could  get  a  chance,  he  whispered  to 
Rea,  "  I  should  have  thought  you  would 
have  known  better  than  to  say  anything 
to  Uncle  George  about  his  having  tears  in 
his  eyes.  It  was  because  we  reminded 


OF  CONNORLOA.  51 

him  so  much  of  mamma,  that  he  cried.  I 
saw  the  tears  come  in  his  eyes,  the  first 
minute  he  saw  us,  but  I  was  n't  going  to 
say  a  word  about  it." 

Poor  little  Rea  felt  badly  enough  to 
think  she  had  not  understood  as  quickly 
as  Jusy  did  ;  but  the  only  thing  she  could 
think  of  to  do  was  to  spring  up  in  the  seat 
of  the  wagon,  and  put  her  arms  around  her 
uncle's  neck,  and  kiss  him  over  and  over, 
saying,  "  We  are  going  to  love  you,  like, 
—  oh,  —  like  everything,  Jusy  and  me  ! 
I  love  you  better  than  my  doggie !  " 

But  when  she  said  this,  the  tears  came 
into  Mr.  Connor's  eyes  again ;  and  Rea 
looked  at  Jusy  in  despair. 

"  Keep    quiet,    Rea,"    whispered    Jusy. 


52  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

"  He  does  n't  want  us  to  talk  just  yet,  I 
guess ;  "  and  Rea  sat  down  again,  and  tried 
to  comfort  herself  with  Fairy.  But  she 
could  not  keep  her  eyes  from  watching  her 
uncle's  face.  Her  affectionate  heart  was 
grieved  to  see  him  look  so  sad,  instead  of 
full  of  joy  and  gladness  as  she  had  thought 
it  would  be.  Finally  she  stole  her  hand 
into  his  and  sat  very  still  without  speak 
ing,  and  that  really  did  comfort  Mr. 
Connor  more  than  anything  she  could 
have  done.  The  truth  was,  Rea  looked 
so  much  like  her  mother,  that  it  was 
almost  more  than  Mr.  Connor  could  bear 
when  he  first  saw  her;  and  her  voice 
also  was  like  her  mother's. 

Jusy  did  not  in  the  least  resemble  his 


OF  CONNORLOA.  53 

mother ;  he  was  like  his  father  in  every 
way, --hair  as  black  as  black  could  be,  and 
eyes  almost  as  black  as  the  hair;  a  fiery, 
flashing  sort  of  face  Jusy  had;  and  a 
fiery,  flashing  sort  of  temper  too,  I  am 
sorry  to  say.  A  good  deal  like  thunder 
storms,  Jusy's  fits  of  anger  were  ;  but,  if 
they  were  swift  and  loud,  like  the  thunder, 
they  also  were  short-lived,  —  cleared  off 
quickly, —  like  thunder-storms,  and  showed 
blue  sky  afterward,  and  a  beautiful  rain 
bow  of  sorrow  for  the  hasty  words  or 
deeds. 

Rea  was  fair,  with  blue  eyes  and  yellow 
hair,  and  a  temper  sunny  as  her  face.  In 
Italy  there  are  so  few  people  with  blue  eyes 
and  fair  hair,  that  whenever  Rea  was  seen 


54  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

in  the  street,  everybody  turned  to  look  at 
her,  and  asked  who  she  was,  and  remem 
bered  her ;  and  when  she  came  again,  they 
said,  "  Ecco!  Ecco!  (That  is  Italian  for 
Look!  Look!)  There  is  the  little  blue- 
eyed,  golden-haired  angel."  Rea  did  not 
know  that  the  people  said  this,  which  was 
well,  for  it  might  have  made  her  vain. 

It  was  six  miles  from  the  railway  station 
to  Mr.  Connor's  house.  But  the  house 
was  in  sight  all  the  way ;  it  was  so  high 
up  on  the  mountain-side  that  it  showed 
plainly,  and  as  it  was  painted  white,  you 
could  see  it  in  all  directions  like  a  light 
house.  Mr.  Connor  liked  to  be  able  to  see 
it  from  all  places  when  he  was  riding 
about  the  valley.  He  said  it  -looked 


OF  CONNORLOA.  55 

friendly  to  him ;  as  if  it  said,  all  the  time, 
"  Here  I  am,  you  can  come  home  any 
minute  you  want  to." 

After  they  had  driven  about  half  way, 
Mr.  Connor  said, — 

"  Children,  do  you  see  that  big  square 
house  up  there  on  the  mountain?  That 
is  Connorloa." 

"  Whose  house  is  it,  Uncle  George  ?  " 
said  Jusy. 

"  Why,  did  you  not  hear?  "  replied  Mr. 
Connor.  "  It  is  Connorloa." 

The  children  looked  still  more  puzzled. 

"  Oh,"  laughed  their  uncle.  "  Is  it  pos 
sible  nobody  has  told  you  the  name  of  my 
house  ?  I  have  called  it  Connorloa,  from 
my  own  name,  and  '  loa,'  which  is  the 


56  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

word  in  the  Sandwich  Islands  for  '  hill/  I 
suppose  I  might  have  called  it  Connor 
Hill,  but  I  thought  '  loa  '  was  prettier." 

"  Oh,  so  do  I,"  said  Jusy.  "  It  is  love 
ly.  Connorloa,  Connorloa,"  he  repeated. 
"  Does  n't  it  sound  like  some  of  the  names 
in  Italy,  Rea?  "  he  said. 

"Prettier  !  "  said  little  Rea.  "  No  word 
in  Italy,  so  pretty  as  Connorloa;  nor  so 
nice  as  Uncle  George." 

"  You  dear,  loving  little  thing!  "  cried 
Uncle  George,  throwing  his  arms  around 
her.  "  You  are  for  all  the  world  your 
mother  over  again." 

"  That 's  just  what  I  Ve  been  saying  to 
myself  all  the  way  home,  Mr.  George," 
said  Jim.  "  It 's  seemed  to  me  half  the 


OF  CONNORLOA.  57 

time  as  if  it  were  Miss  Julia  herself;  but 
the  boy  is  not  much  like  you." 

"  No,"  said  Jusy  proudly,  throwing  back 
his  handsome  head,  and  his  eyes  flashing. 
"  I  am  always  said  to  be  exactly  the  por 
trait  of  my  father ;  and  when  I  am  a  man, 

I  am  going  back  to  Italy  to  live  in  the 
King's     palace,     and     wear    my     father's 
sword." 

"  I  sha'n't  go,"  said  Rea,  nestling  close 
to  her  uncle.  "  I  shall  stay  in  Connorloa 
with  Uncle  George.  I  hate  palaces.  Your 
house  is  n't  a  palace,  is  it,  Uncle  George  ? 
It  looks  pretty  big." 

"  No,  my  dear ;  not  by  any  means," 
replied  Mr.  Connor,  laughing  heartily. 

II  But  why  do  you  hate  palaces,  my  little 


58  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

Rea  ?  Most  people  think  it  would  be  the 
finest  thing  possible  to  live  in  a  palace." 

"  I  don't,"  said  Rea.  "  I  just  hate 
them ;  the  rooms  are  so  big  and  so  cold ; 
and  the  marble  floors  are  so  slip-py,  I  Ve 
had  my  knees  all  black  and  blue  tumbling 
down  on  them ;  and  the  stairs  are  worse 
yet ;  I  used  to  have  to  creep  on  them ;  and 
there  is  a  soldier  at  every  corner  with  a 
gun  and  a  sword  to  kill  you,  if  you  break 
any  of  the  rules.  I  think  a  palace  is  just 
like  a  prison !  J! 

"  Well  done,  my  little  Republican !  " 
cried  Uncle  George. 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  said  Rea. 

"  I  know,"  said  Jusy.  "  It  is  a  person 
that  does  not  wish  to  have  any  king. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  59 

There  were  Republicans  in  Italy  ;  very  bad 
men.  Papa  said  they  ought  to  be  killed. 
Why  do  you  call  Rea  by  that  name,  Uncle 
George  ? "  and  Jusy  straightened  himself 
up  like  a  soldier,  and  looked  fierce. 

Mr.  Connor  could  hardly  keep  his  face 
straight  as  he  replied  to  Jusy  :  "  My  dear 
boy  the  word  does  not  mean  anything  bad 
in  America;  we  are  all  Republicans  here. 
You  know  we  do  not  have  any  king.  We 
do  not  think  that  is  the  best  way  to  take 
care  of  a  country." 

"  My  papa  thought  it  was  the  best  way," 
haughtily  answered  Jusy.  "  I  shall  think 
always  as  papa  did." 

"  All  right,  my  man,"  laughed  Uncle 
George.  "  Perhaps  you  will.  You  can 


60  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

think  and  say  what  you  like  while  you  live 
in  America,  and  nobody  will  put  you  in 
prison  for  your  thoughts  or  your  words, 
as  they  might  if  you  lived  in  Italy." 

It  was  near  night  when  they  reached 
the  house.  As  they  drove  slowly  up  the 
long  hill,  the  Chinamen  were  just  going, 
on  the  same  road,  to  their  supper.  When 
they  heard  the  sound  of  the  wheels,  they 
stepped  off  the  road,  and  formed  them 
selves  into  a  line  to  let  the  carriage  pass, 
and  to  get  a  peep  at  the  children.  They 
all  knew  about  their  coming,  and  were 
curious  to  see  them. 

When  Rea  caught  sight  of  them,  she 
screamed  aloud,  and  shook  with  terror,  and 
hid  her  face  on  her  uncle's  shoulder. 


''/->  — f:l_  '''-Its""'"  S1 


u  The  Chinamen  were  just  going  to  their  supper,  and  they  formed  themselves 
into  a  line."  —  PAGE  60. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  61 

"  Are  those  the  savages  ?  "  she  cried. 
"  Oh,  don't  let  them  kill  Fairy  ;  "  and  she 
nearly  smothered  the  little  dog,  crowding 
her  down  out  of  sight  on  the  seat  between 
herself  and  her  uncle. 

Jusy  did  not  say  a  word,  but  he  turned 
pale  ;  he  also  thought  these  must  be  the 
savages  of  which  they  had  heard. 

Mr.  Connor  could  hardly  speak  for 
laughing.  "  Who  ever  put  such  an  idea 
as  that  into  your  head  ? "  he  cried. 
11  Those  are  men  from  China ;  those  are 
my  workmen ;  they  live  at  Connorloa  all 
the  time.  They  are  very  good  men  ;  they 
would  not  hurt  anybody.  There  are  not 
any  savages  here." 

"  Caterina  said  America  was  all  full  of 


62  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

savages,"  sobbed  Rea,  — "  savages  and 
wild  beasts,  such  as  lions  and  wolves." 

"  That  girl  was  a  fool,"  exclaimed  Jim. 
"It  was  a  good  thing,  Mr.  George,  you 
told  me  not  to  bring  her  over." 

"  I  should  say  so,"  replied  Mr.  Connor. 
"  The  idea  of  her  trying  to  frighten  these 
children  in  that  way.  It  was  abominable." 

"  She  did  nothing  of  the  kind,"  cried 
Jusy,  his  face  very  red.  "  She  was  talking 
to  her  cousin ;  and  she  thought  we  were 
asleep  ;  and  Rea  and  I  listened ;  and  I  told 
Rea  it  was  good  enough  for  us  to  get  so 
frightened  because  we  had  listened.  But 
I  did  not  believe  it  so  much  as  Rea  did." 

The  Chinamen  were  all  bowing  and 
bending,  and  smiling  in  the  gladness  of 


OF  CONNORLOA.  63 

their  hearts.  Mr.  Connor  was  a  good 
master  to  them;  and  they  knew  it  would 
be  to  him  great  pleasure  to  have  these 
little  children  in  the  house. 

While  driving  by  he  spoke  to  several  of 
them  by  name,  and  they  replied.  Jusy 
and  Rea  listened  and  looked. 

"  What  are  their  heads  made  of,  Uncle 
George  ?  "  whispered  Rea.  "  Will  they 
break  if  they  hit  them  ?  " 

At  first,  Mr.  Connor  could  not  under 
stand  what  she  meant ;  then  in  a  moment 
he  shouted  with  laughter. 

Chinamen  have  their  heads  shorn  of  all 
hair,  except  one  little  lock  at  the  top ; 
this  is  braided  in  a  tight  braid,  like  a  whip 
lash,  and  hangs  down  their  backs,  some- 


64  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

times  almost  to  the  very  ground.  The 
longer  this  queer  little  braid  is,  the  prouder 
the  Chinaman  feels.  All  the  rest  of  his 
head  is  bare  and  shining  smooth.  They 
looked  to  Rea  like  the  heads  of  porcelain 
baby  dolls  she  had  had;  and  that  those 
would  break,  she  knew  by  sad  experience. 

How  pleased  Rea  and  Jusy  were  with 
their  beautiful  rooms,  and  with  everything 
in  their  Uncle  George's  house,  there  are 
no  words  to  tell.  They  would  have  been 
very  unreasonable  and  ungrateful  children, 
if  they  had  not  been ;  for  Mr.  Connor  had 
not  forgotten  one  thing  which  could  add 
to  their  comfort  or  happiness :  books,  toys, 
everything  he  could  think  of,  or  anybody 
could  suggest  to  him,  he  had  bought. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  65 

And  when  he  led  little  Rea  into  her  bed 
room,  there  stood  a  sweet- faced  young 
Mexican  girl,  to  be  her  nurse. 

"  Anita,"  he  said,  "  here  is  your  young 
lady." 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you,  senorita," 
said  the  girl,  coming  forward  to  take  off 
Rea's  hat;  on  which  Rea  exclaimed, — 

"  Why,  she  is  Italian !  That  is  what 
Caterina  called  me.  And  Caterina  had  a 
sister  whose  name  was  Anita.  How  did 
you  get  over  here  ?  " 

"  I  was  born  here,  senorita,"  replied  the 
girl. 

"  It  is  not  quite  the  same  word,  Rea," 
said  Mr.  Connor,  "  though  it  sounds 
so  much  like  it.  It  was  'signorita'  you 


66  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

were  called  in  Italy ;  and  it  is  'senorita' 
that  Anita  here  calls  you.  That  is  Span 
ish  ;  and  Anita  speaks  much  more  Spanish 
than  English.  That  is  one  reason  I  took 
her.  I  want  you  to  learn  to  speak  in 
Spanish." 

"  Then  we  shall  speak  four  languages," 
said  Jusy  proudly,  —  "  Italian,  French,  and 
English  and  Spanish.  Our  papa  spoke 
eleven.  That  was  one  reason  he  was  so 
useful  to  the  King.  Nobody  could  come 
from  any  foreign  country  that  papa  could 
not  talk  to.  My  papa  said  the  more 
languages  a  man  spoke,  the  more  he  could 
do  in  the  world.  I  shall  learn  all  the  Amer 
ican  languages  before  I  go  back  to  Italy. 
Are  there  as  many  as  nine,  Uncle  George?" 


OF  CONNORLOA.  67 

"  Yes,  a  good  many  more,"  replied 
Uncle  George.  "  Pretty  nearly  a  language 
for  every  State,  I  should  say.  But  the 
fewer  you  learn  of  them  the  better.  If  you 
will  speak  good  English  and  Spanish,  that 
is  all  you  will  need  here." 

"  Shall  we  not  learn  the  language  of  the 
signors  from  China  ?  "  asked  Rea. 

At  which  Jim,  who  had  followed,  and 
was  standing  in  the  background,  looking 
on  with  delight,  almost  went  into  convul 
sions  of  laughter,  and  went  out  and  told  the 
Chinamen  in  the  kitchen  that  Miss  Rea 
wished  to  learn  to  speak  Chinese  at  once. 
So  they  thought  she  must  be  a  very  nice 
little  girl,  and  were  all  ready  to  be  her 
warm  friends. 


68  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

The  next  morning,  as  Rea  was  dressing, 
she  heard  a  great  caterwauling  and  miaow 
ing.  Fairy,  who  was  asleep  on  the  foot  of 
her  bed,  sprang  up  and  began  to  bark 
furiously;  all  the  while,  however,  looking 
as  if  she  were  frightened  half  to  death. 
Never  before  had  Fairy  heard  so  many 
cats*  voices  at  once. 

Rea  ran  to  the  open  window ;  before 
she  reached  it,  she  heard  Jusy  calling  to 
her  from  below, — 

"  Rea !  Rea !  Are  you  up  ?  Come  out 
and  see  the  cats." 

Jusy  had  been  up  ever  since  light, 
roaming  over  the  whole  place :  the  stables, 
the  Chinamen's  quarters,  the  tool-house, 
the  kitchen,  the  wood-pile ;  there  was  noth- 


OF  CONNORLOA.  69 

ing  he  had  not  seen ;  and  he  was  in  a  state 
of  such  delight  he  could  not  walk  straight 
or  steadily;  he  went  on  the  run  and  with 
a  hop,  skip,  and  jump  from  each  thing  to 
the  next. 

"  Hurry,  Real  "  he  screamed.  "  Do 
hurry.  Never  mind  your  hair.  Come 
down.  They  '11  be  done  1  " 

Still  the  miaowing  and  caterwauling 
continued. 

"  Oh,  hurry,  hurry,  Anita,"  said  Rea. 
"  Please  let  me  go  down ;  I  '11  come  up  to 
have  my  hair  done  afterwards.  What  is  it, 
Anita  ?  Is  it  really  cats  ?  Are  there  a 
thousand  ?  " 

Anita  laughed.  "  No,  senorita,"  she 
said.  "  Only  seventeen !  And  you  will 


70  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

see  them  every  morning  just  the  same. 
They  always  make  this  noise.  They  are 
being  fed;  and  there  is  only  a  very  little 
meat  for  so  many.  Jim  keeps  them  hun 
gry  all  the  time,  so  they  will  hunt  better." 

"  Hunt !  "    cried  Rea. 

"  Yes,"  said  Anita.  "  That  is  what  we 
keep  them  for,  to  hunt  the  gophers  and 
rabbits  and  moles.  They  are  clearing  them 
out  fast.  Jim  says  by  another  spring  there 
won't  be  a  gopher  on  the  place." 

Before  she  had  finished  speaking,  Rea 
was  downstairs  and  out  on  the  east 
veranda.  At  the  kitchen  door  stood  a 
Chinaman,  throwing  bits  of  meat  to  the 
scrambling  seventeen  cats,  —  black,  white, 
tortoise-shell,  gray,  maltese,  yellow,  every 


OF  CONNORLOA.  71 

color,  size,  shape  of  cat  that  was  ever  seen. 
And  they  were  plunging  and  leaping  and 
racing  about  so,  that  it  looked  like  twice 
as  many  cats  as  there  really  were,  and  as 
if  every  cat  had  a  dozen  tails.  "  Sfz ! 
Sfz !  Sputter !  Scratch,  spp,  spt !  Growl, 
growl,  miaow,  miaow,"  they  went,  till, 
between  the  noise  and  the  flying  around, 
it  was  a  bedlam. 

Jusy  had  laughed  till  the  tears  ran  out 
of  his  eyes ;  and  Ah  Foo  (that  was  the 
Chinaman's  name)  was  laughing  almost  as 
hard,  just  to  see  Jusy  laugh.  The  cats 
were  an  old  story  to  Ah  Foo ;  he  had  got 
over  laughing  at  them  long  ago. 

Ah  Foo  was  the  cook's  brother.  While 
Jim  had  been  away,  Ah  Foo  had  waited  at 


72  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

table,  and  done  all  the  housework  except 
the  cooking.  The  cook's  name  was  Wang 
Hi.  He  was  old ;  but  Ah  Foo  was  young, 
not  more  than  twenty.  He  did  not  like  to 
work  in  the  house,  and  he  was  glad  Jim 
had  got  home,  so  he  could  go  to  working 
out  of  doors  again.  He  was  very  glad,  too, 
to  see  the  children ;  and  he  had  spoken  so 
pleasantly  to  Jusy,  that  in  one  minute  Jusy 
had  lost  all  his  fear  of  Chinamen. 

When  Rea  saw  Ah  Foo,  she  hung  back, 
and  was  afraid  to  go  nearer. 

"  Oh,  come  on  !  come  on !  "  shouted 
Jusy.  "  Don't  be  afraid  !  He  is  just  like 
Jim,  only  a  different  color.  They  have 
men  of  all  kinds  of  colors  here  in  America. 
They  are  just  like  other  people,  all  but  the 


OF  CONNORLOA.  73 

color.  Come  on,  Rea.  Don't  be  silly. 
You  can't  half  see  from  there !  ': 

But  Rea  was  afraid.  She  would  not 
come  farther  than  the  last  pillar  of  the 
veranda.  "  I  can  see  very  well  here,"  she 
said ;  and  there  she  stood  clinging  to  the 
pillar.  She  was  half  afraid  of  the  cats,  too, 
besides  being  very  much  afraid  of  the 
Chinaman. 

The  cats'  breakfast  was  nearly  over.  In 
fact,  they  had  had  their  usual  allowance 
before  Rea  came  down ;  but  Ah  Foo  had 
gone  on  throwing  out  meat  for  Rea  to  see 
the  scrambling.  Presently  he  threw  the 
last  piece,  and  set  the  empty  plate  up  on  a 
shelf  by  the  kitchen  door.  The  cats  knew 
very  well  by  this  sign  that  breakfast  was 


74  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

over ;  after  the  plate  was  set  on  that  shelf, 
they  never  had  a  mouthful  more  of  meat ; 
and  it  was  droll  to  see  the  change  that 
came  over  all  of  them  as  soon  as  they  saw 
this  done.  In  less  than  a  second,  they 
changed  from  fierce,  fighting,  clawing, 
scratching,  snatching,  miaowing,  spitting, 
growling  cats,  into  quiet,  peaceful  cats, 
some  sitting  down  licking  their  paws,  or 
washing  their  faces,  and  some  lying  out 
full-length  on  the  ground  and  rolling; 
some  walking  off  in  a  leisurely  and  digni 
fied  manner,  as  if  they  had  had  all  they 
wanted,  and  would  n't  thank  anybody  for 
another  bit  of  meat,  if  they  could  have  it  as 
well  as  not.  This  was  almost  as  funny  as 
the  first  part  of  it. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  75 

After  Ah  Foo  had  set  the  plate  in  its 
place  on  the  shelf,  he  turned  to  go  into  the 
kitchen  to  help  about  the  breakfast;  but  just 
as  he  had  put  his  hand  on  the  door-handle, 
there  came  a  terrible  shriek  from  Rea,  a 
fierce  sputter  from  one  of  the  cats,  and  a 
faint  bark  of  a  dog,  all  at  once ;  and  Ah  Foo, 
looking  around,  sprang  just  in  time  to  res 
cue  Fairy  from  the  jaws  of  Skipper,  one  of 
the  biggest  and  fiercest  of  the  cats. 

Poor  little  Fairy,  missing  her  mistress, 
had  trotted  downstairs;  and  smelling  on 
the  floor  wherever  Rea  had  set  her  feet, 
had  followed  her  tracks,  and  had  reached 
the  veranda  just  in  time  to  be  spied  by 
Skipper,  who  arched  his  back,  set  his  tail 
up  straight  and  stiff  as  a  poker,  and,  making 


76  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

one  bound  from  the  ground  to  the  mid 
dle  of  the  veranda  floor,  clutched  Fairy 
with  teeth  and  claws,  and  would  have 
made  an  end  of  her  in  less  than  one  min 
ute  if  Ah  Foo  had  not  been  there.  But 
Ah  Foo  could  move  almost  as  quickly  as  a 
cat ;  and  it  was  not  a  quarter  of  a  second 
after  Fairy  gave  her  piteous  cry,  when  she 
was  safe  and  sound  in  her  mistress's  arms, 
and  Ah  Foo  had  Skipper  by  the  scruff  of 
his  neck,  and  was  holding  him  high  up, 
boxing  his  ears,  right  and  left,  with  blows 
so  hard  they  rang. 

"  Cat  heap  wicked,"  he  said.  "  You 
killee  missy's  dog,  I  killee  you !  "  and  he 
flung  Skipper  with  all  his  might  and  main 
through  the  air. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  77 

Rea  screamed,  "  Oh,  don't!  "  She  did 
not  want  to  see  the  cat  killed,  even  if  he 
had  flown  at  Fairy.  "  It  will  kill  him," 
she  cried. 

Ah  Foo  laughed.  "  Heap  hard  killee 
cat,"  he  said.  "  Cat  get  nine  time  life 
good ; "  and  as  he  spoke,  Skipper,  after 
whirling  through  the  air  in  several  somer 
saults,  came  down  on  his  feet  all  right, 
and  slunk  off  into  the  woodpile. 

"  I  tellee  you,"  said  Ah  Foo,  chuckling. 

"  Thatee  isee  heapee  goodee  manee," 
cried  Jusy.  "  I  havee  learnee  talkee  oneee 
language  already !  " 

A  roar  of  laughter  came  from  the  din 
ing-room  window.  There  stood  Uncle 
George,  holding  his  sides. 


;8  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

"Bravo,  Jusy!"  he  exclaimed.  "You 
have  begun  on  pigeon  English,  have  you, 
for  the  first  of  your  nine  languages  ?  " 

"  Is  n't  that  Chinese  ?  "  said  Jusy,  much 
crestfallen. 

"  Oh,  no !  "  said  Uncle  George,  "  not 
by  any  manner  of  means.  It  is  only  the 
Chinese  way  of  talking  English.  It  is 
called  pigeon  English.  But  come  in  to 
breakfast  now,  and  I  will  tell  you  all  about 
my  cats,  —  my  hunting  cats,  I  call  them. 
They  are  just  as  good  as  a  pack  of  hunting 
dogs  ;  and  better,  for  they  do  not  need  any 
body  to  go  with  them." 

How  pleasant  the  breakfast-table  looked ! 
—  a  large  square  table  set  with  gay  china, 
pretty  flowers  in  the  middle,  nice  broiled 


OF  CONNORLOA.  79 

chicken  and  fried  potatoes,  and  baked 
apples  and  cream  ;  and  Jusy's  and  Rea's 
bright  faces,  one  on  Mr.  Connor's  left  hand, 
the  other  on  his  right. 

As  Jim  moved  about  the  table  and 
waited  on  them,  he  thought  to  him 
self,  "  Now,  if  this  does  n't  make  Mr. 
George  well,  it  will  be  because  he  can't 
be  cured." 

Jim  had  found  the  big  house  so  lonely, 
with  nobody  in  it  except  Mr.  Connor  and 
the  two  Chinese  servants,  he  would  have 
been  glad  to  see  almost  anything  in  the 
shape  of  a  human  being,  —  man,  woman,  or 
child,  —  come  there  to  live.  How  much 
more,  then,  these  two  beautiful  and  merry 
children ! 


8o  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

Jusy  and  Rea  thought  they  had  never 
in  all  their  lives  tasted  anything  so  good 
as  the  broiled  chicken  and  the  baked 
apples. 

"Heapee  goodee  cookee,  Uncle  George!" 
said  Jusy.  He  was  so  tickled  with  the 
Chinaman's  way  of  talking,  he  wanted  to 
keep  doing  it. 

"  Tooee  muchee  putee  onee  letter  e, 
Master  Jusy,"  said  Uncle  George.  "  After 
you  have  listened  to  their  talk  a  little 
longer,  you  will  see  that  they  do  not  add 
the  '  ee '  to  every  word.  It  is  hard  to 
imitate  them  exactly." 

Jusy  was  crestfallen.  He  thought  he 
had  learned  a  new  language  in  half  an 
hour,  and  he  was  proud  of  it.  But  no  new 


OF  CONNORLOA. 


81 


language  was  ever  learned  without  more 
trouble  and  hard  work  than  that ;  not  even 
pigeon  English  1 


III. 

IT  had  come  about  by  chance,  Mr.  Con 
nor's  keeping  this  pack  of  hunting  cats. 
He  had  been  greatly  troubled  by  gophers 
and  rabbits  :  the  gophers  killed  his  trees 
by  gnawing  their  roots  ;  the  rabbits  bur 
rowed  under  his  vines,  ate  the  tender 
young  leaves,  and  gnawed  the  stems. 

Jim  had  tried  every  device,  —  traps  of  all 
kinds  and  all  the  poisons  he  could  hear  of. 
He  had  also  tried  drowning  the  poor  little 


THE  HUNTER  CATS.  83 

gophers  out  by  pouring  water  down  their 
holes.  But,  spite  of  all  he  could  do,  the 
whole  hill  was  alive  with  them.  It  had 
been  wild  ground  so  long,  and  covered 
so  thick  with  bushes,  that  it  had  been  like 
a  nice  house  built  on  purpose  for  all  small 
wild  animals  to  live  in. 

I  suppose  there  must  have  been  miles  of 
gophers'  underground  tunnels,  leading  from 
hole  to  hole.  They  popped  their  heads 
up,  and  you  saw  them  scampering  away 
wherever  you  went ;  and  in  the  early 
morning  it  was  very  funny  to  see  the 
rabbits  jumping  and  leaping  to  get  off  out 
of  sight  when  they  heard  people  stirring. 
They  were  of  a  beautiful  gray  color,  with  a 
short  bushy  tail,  white  at  the  end.  On 


84  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

account  of  this  white  tip  to  their  tails,  they 
are  called  "  cotton-tails." 

When  Mr.  Connor  first  moved  up  on 
the  hill,  Jim  used  to  shoot  a  cotton 
tail  almost  every  day,  and  some  days  he 
shot  two.  The  rabbits,  however,  are  shyer 
than  the  gophers  ;  when  they  find  out  that 
they  get  shot  as  soon  as  they  are  seen, 
and  that  these  men  who  shoot  them  have 
built  houses  and  mean  to  stay,  they  will 
gradually  desert  their  burrows  and  move 
away  to  new  homes. 

But  the  gopher  is  not  so  afraid.  He 
lives  down  in  the  ground,  and  can  work 
in  the  dark  as  well  as  in  the  light ;  and 
he  likes  roots  just  as  well  as  he  likes 
the  stems  above  ground ;  so  as  long  as 


OF  CONNORLOA.  85 

he  stays  in  his  cellar  houses,  he  is  hard 
to  reach. 

The  gopher  is  a  pretty  little  creature, 
with  a  striped  back,  —  almost  as  pretty  as  a 
chipmonk.  It  seems  a  great  pity  to  have 
to  kill  them  all  off;  but  there  is  no  help 
for  it ;  fruit-trees  and  gophers  cannot  live 
in  the  same  place. 

Soon  after  Mr.  Connor  moved  into  his  new 
house,  he  had  a  present  of  a  big  cat  from 
the  Mexican  woman  who  sold  him  milk. 

She  said  to  Jim  one  day,  "  Have  you 
got  a  cat  in  your  house  yet  ? " 

"  No,"  said  Jim.  "  Mr.  George  does  not 
like  cats." 

"  No  matter,"  said  she,  "  you  have  got  to 
have  one.  The  gophers  and  squirrels  in 


86  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

this  country  are  a  great  deal  worse  than 
rats  and  mice.  They  '11  come  right  into 
your  kitchen  and  cellar,  if  your  back  is 
turned  a  minute,  and  eat  you  out  of  house 
and  home.  '  I  '11  give  you  a  splendid  cat. 
She  's  a  good  hunter.  I  Ve  got  more  cats 
than  I  know  what  to  do  with." 

So  she  presented  Jim  with  a  fine,  big 
black  and  white  cat;  and  Jim  named  the 
cat  "  Mexican,"  because  a  Mexican  woman 
gave  her  to  him. 

The  first  thing  Mexican  did,  after  getting 
herself  established  in  her  new  home  in  the 
woodpile,  was  to  have  a  litter  of  kittens, 
six  of  them.  The  next  thing  she  did,  as 
soon  as  they  got  big  enough  to  eat  meat, 
was  to  go  out  hunting  for  food  for  them ; 


OF  CONNORLOA.  87 

and  one  day,  as  Mr.  Connor  was  riding  up 
the  hill,  he  saw  her  running  into  the  wood 
pile,  with  a  big  fat  gopher  in  her  mouth. 

"  Ha  !  "  thought  Mr.  Connor  to  himself. 
"  There  's  an  idea  !  If  one  cat  will  kill  one 
gopher  in  a  day,  twenty  cats  would  kill 
twenty  gophers  in  a  day  !  I  '11  get  twenty 
cats,  and  keep  them  just  to  hunt  gophers. 
They  '11  clear  the  place  out  quicker  than 
poison,  or  traps,  or  drowning." 

"  Jim,"  he  called,  as  soon  as  he  entered 
the  house,  —  "Jim,  I've  got  an  idea.  I 
saw  Mexican  just  now  carrying  a  dead 
gopher  to  her  kittens.  Does  she  kill 
many?" 

"  Oh,  yes,  sir,"  replied  Jim.  "  Before  she 
got  her  kittens  I  used  to  see  her  with  them 


88  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

every  day.  But  she  does  not  go  out  so 
often  now." 

"  Good  mother!"  said  Mr.  Connor. 
"  Stays  at  home  with  her  family,  does 
she?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  laughed  Jim  ;  "  except  when 
she  needs  to  go  out  to  get  food  for 
them." 

"  You  may  set  about  making  a  collection 
of  cats,  Jim,  at  once,"  said  Mr.  Connor. 
«  I  'd  like  twenty." 

Jim  stared.  "  I  thought  you  didn't  like 
cats,  Mr.  George,"  he  exclaimed.  "  I  was 
afraid  to  bring  Mexican  home,  for  fear 
you  would  n't  like  having  her  about." 

"  No  more  do  I,"  replied  Mr.  Connor. 
But  I  do  not  dislike  them  so  much  as  I 


OF  CONNORLOA.  89 

dislike  gophers.  And  don't  you  see,  if  we 
have  twenty,  and  they  all  hunt  gophers  as 
well  as  she  does,  we  '11  soon  have  the  place 
cleared  ?  " 

"  We  'd  have  to  feed  them,  sir,"  said  Jim. 
"  So  many  's  that,  they  'd  never  make  all 
their  living  off  gophers." 

"Well,  we  '11  feed  them  once  a  day,  just 
a  little,  so  as  not  to  let  them  starve.  But 
we  must  keep  them  hungry,  or  else  they 
won't  hunt." 

"  Very  well,  sir,"  said  Jim.  "  I  will  set 
about  it  at  once." 

"  Beg  or  buy  them,"  laughed  Mr.  Con 
nor.  "  I  '11  pay  for  them,  if  I  can't  get 
them  any  other  way.  There  is  room  in 
the  woodpile  for  fifty  to  live." 


90  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

Jim  did  not  much  like  the  idea  of 
having  such  an  army  of  cats  about ;  but 
he  went  faithfully  to  work  ;  and  in  a  few 
weeks  he  had  seventeen.  One  morning, 
when  they  were  all  gathered  together  to 
be  fed,  he  called  Mr.  Connor  to  look  at 
them. 

"  Do  you  think  there  are  enough,  sir  ?  " 
he  said. 

"  Goodness !  Jim,"  cried  Mr.  Connor, 
"  what  did  you  get  so  many  for  ?  We  shall 
be  overrun." 

Jim  laughed.  "  I  'm  three  short  yet,  sir, 
of  the  number  you  ordered,"  he  said. 
"  There  are  only  seventeen  in  that  batch." 

"  Only  seventeen !  You  are  joking, 
Jim,"  cried  Mr.  Connor;  and  he  tried  to 


OF  CONNORLOA.  91 

count ;  but  the  cats  were  in  such  a  scram 
bling  mass,  he  could  not  count  them. 

"  I  give  it  up,  Jim,"  he  said  at  last. 
"  But  are  there  really  only  seventeen?" 

"  That 's  all,  sir,  and  it  takes  quite  a  lot 
of  meat  to  give  them  all  a  bite  of  a  morn 
ing.  I  think  here  are  enough  to  begin 
with,  unless  you  have  set  your  heart,  sir, 
on  having  twenty.  Mexican  has  got  six 
kittens,  you  know,  and  they  will  be  big 
enough  to  hunt  before  long.  That  will 
make  twenty-three." 

"  Plenty  !  plenty !  "  said  Mr.  Connor. 
"  Don't  get  another  one.  And,  Jim,"  he 
added,  "  would  n't  it  be  better  to  feed  them 
at  night?  Then  they  will  be  hungry 
the  next  morning." 


92  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

"  I  tried  that,  sir,"  said  Jim,  "  but  they 
did  n't  seem  so  lively.  I  don't  give  them 
any  more  than  just  enough  to  whet  their 
appetites.  At  first  they  sat  round  the  door 
begging  for  more,  half  the  morning,  and  I 
had  to  stone  them  away ;  now  they  under 
stand  it.  In  a  few  minutes,  they  '11  all  be 
off;  and  you  won't  see  much  of  any  of 
them  till  to-morrow  morning.  They  are 
all  on  hand  then,  as  regular  as  the  sun 
rises." 

"Where  do  they  sleep?"  said  Mr. 
Connor. 

"  In  the  woodpile,  every  blessed  cat  of 
them,"  replied  Jim.  "And  there  are  squir 
rels  living  in  there  too.  It  is  just  a  kind 
of  cage,  that  woodpile,  with  its  crooks 


OF  CONNORLOA.  93 

and  turns.  I  saw  a  squirrel  going  up,  up, 
in  it  the  other  day ;  I  thought  he  'd  make 
his  way  out  to  the  top  ;  I  thought  the 
cats  would  have  cleaned  them  all  out  be 
fore  this  time,  but  they  have  n't ;  I  saw 
one  there  only  yesterday." 

Jim  had  counted  too  soon  on  Mexican's 
kittens.  Five  of  them  came  to  a  sad  end. 
Their  mother  carried  to  them,  one  day,  a 
gopher  which  she  found  lying  dead  in  the 
road.  Poor  cat-mother !  I  suppose  she 
thought  to  herself  when  she  saw  it  lying 
there,  "Oh,  how  lucky!  I  shan't  have 
to  sit  and  wait  and  watch  for  a  gopher 
this  morning.  Here  is  one  all  ready, 
dead ! "  But  that  gopher  had  died  of  poi 
son  which  had  been  put  down  his  hole  ; 


94  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

and  as  soon  as  the  little  kittens  ate  it,  they 
were  all  taken  dreadfully  ill,  and  all  but  one 
died.  Either  he  had  n't  had  so  much  of 
the  gopher  as  the  rest  had,  or  else  he  was 
stronger ;  he  lingered  along  in  misery  for 
a  month,  as  thin,  wretched-looking  a  little 
beast  as  ever  was  seen  ;  then  he  began  to 
pick  up  his  flesh,  and  finally  got  to  be  as 
strong  a  cat  as  there  was  in  the  whole  pack. 

He  was  most  curiously  marked :  in 
addition  to  the  black  and  white  of  his 
mother's  skin,  he  had  gray  and  yellow 
mottled  in  all  over  him.  Jim  thought  it 
looked  as  if  his  skin  had  been  painted,  so 
he  named  him  Fresco. 

Jim  had  names  for  all  the  best  cats; 
there  were  ten  that  were  named.  The 


OF  CONNORLOA.  95 

other  seven,  Jim  called  "  the  rabble;  "  but 
of  the  ten  he  had  named,  Jim  grew  to 
be  very  proud.  He  thought  they  were 
remarkable  cats. 

First  there  was  Mexican,  the  original 
first-comer  in  the  colony.  Then  there  was 
Big  Tom,  and  another  Tom  called  China 
Tom,  because  he  would  stay  all  the  time 
he  could  with  the  Chinamen.  He  was 
dark-gray,  with  black  stripes  on  him. 

Next  in  size  and  beauty  was  a  huge 
black  cat,  called  Snowball.  He  was 
given  to  Mr.  Connor  by  a  miner's  wife, 
who  lived  in  a  cabin  high  up  on  the  moun 
tain.  She  said  she  would  let  him  have 
the  cat  on  the  condition  that  he  would  con 
tinue  to  call  him  Snowball,  as  she  had 


96  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

done.  She  named  him  Snowball,  she 
said,  to  make  herself  laugh  every  time  she 
called  him,  he  being  black  as  coal  ;  and 
there  was  so  little  to  laugh  at  where  she 
lived,  she  liked  a  joke  whenever  she  could 
contrive  one. 

Then  there  was  Skipper,  the  one  who 
nearly  ate  up  Fairy  that  first  morning ;  he 
also  wras  as  black  as  coal,  and  fierce  as  a 
wolf ;  all  the  cats  were  more  or  less  afraid 
of  him.  Jim  named  him  Skipper,  because 
he  used  to  race  about  in  trees  like  a  squir 
rel.  Way  up  to  the  very  top  of  the  big 
gest  sycamore  trees  in  the  canon  back  of 
the  house,  Skipper  would  go,  and  leap 
from  one  bough  to  another.  He  was  es 
pecially  fond  of  birds,  and  in  this  way  he 


OF  CONNORLOA.  97 

caught  many.  He  thought  birds  were 
much  better  eating  than  gophers. 

Mexican,  Big  Tom,  China  Tom,  Snow 
ball,  Skipper,  and  Fresco,  —  these  are  six 
of  the  names ;  the  other  four  were  not 
remarkable  ;  they  did  not  mean  anything 
in  especial ;  only  to  distinguish  their 
owners  from  the  rest,  who  had  no  names 
at  all. 

Oh,  yes  ;  I  am  forgetting  the  drollest  of 
all :  that  was  Humbug.  Jim  gave  her 
that  name  because  she  was  so  artful  and 
sly  about  getting  more  than  her  share  of 
the  meat.  She  would  watch  for  the  big 
gest  pieces,  and  pounce  on  them  right 
under  some  other  cat's  nose,  and  almost 
always  succeed  in  getting  them.  So  Jim 


98  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

named  her  Humbug,  which  was  a  very 
good  name ;  for  she  always  pretended  to 
be  quieter  and  stiller  than  the  rest,  as 
if  she  were  not  in  any  great  hurry  about 
her  breakfast ;  and  then  she  whisked  in, 
and  got  the  biggest  pieces,  and  twice  as 
much  as  any  other  cat  there. 

The  other  names  were  Jenny,  Capitan, 
and  Growler.  That  made  the  ten. 

In  a  very  few  days  after  Jusy  and  Rea 
arrived,  they  knew  all  these  cats'  names 
as  well  as  Jim  did ;  and  they  were  never 
tired  of  watching  them  at  their  morning 
meal,  or  while  they  were  prowling,  looking, 
and  waiting  for  gophers  and  rabbits. 

For  a  long  time,  Rea  carried  Fairy  tight 
in  her  arms  whenever  there  was  a  cat  in 


OF  CONNORLOA.  99 

sight ;  but  after  a  while,  the  cats  all  came 
to  know  Fairy  so  well  that  they  took  no 
notice  of  her,  and  it  was  safe  to  put  her 
on  the  ground  and  let  her  run  along.  But 
Rea  kept  close  to  her,  and  never  forgot  her 
for  a  single  minute. 

There  were  many  strange  things  which 
these  cats  did,  besides  hunting  the  gophers. 
They  used  also  to  hunt  snakes.  In  one 
of  the  rocky  ravines  near  the  house  there 
were  large  snakes  of  a  beautiful  golden- 
brown  color.  On  warm  days  these  used 
to  crawl  out,  and  lie  sunning  themselves 
on  the  rocks.  Woe  to  any  such  snake,  if 
one  of  the  cats  caught  sight  of  him  !  Big 
Tom  had  a  special  knack  at  killing  them. 
He  would  make  a  bound,  and  come  down 


100  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

with  his  fore  claws  firm  planted  in  the 
middle  of  the  snake's  back  ;  then  he  would 
take  it  in  his  teeth,  and  shake  it,  flapping 
its  head  against  the  stones  every  time,  till 
it  was  more  dead  than  alive.  You  would 
not  have  thought  that  so  big  a  snake  could 
have  been  so  helpless  in  the  claws  of  a 
cat. 

Another  thing  the  cats  did,  which  gave 
the  men  much  amusement,  was,  that  when 
they  had  killed  rabbits  they  carried  the 
bodies  into  the  mules'  stables.  Mules  are 
terribly  frightened  at  the  smell  of  a  dead 
rabbit.  Whenever  this  happened,  a  great 
braying  and  crying  and  stamping  would  be 
heard  in  the  stables  ;  and  on  running  to  see 
what  was  the  matter,  there  would  be  found 


OF  CONNOR LO A.  101 

Big  Tom  or  Skipper,  sitting  down  calm  and 
happy  by  the  side  of  a  dead  rabbit,  which 
he  had  carried  in,  and  for  some  reason 
or  other  best  known  to  himself  had  de 
posited  in  plain  sight  of  the  mules.  Why 
they  chose  to  carry  dead  rabbits  there,  un 
less  it  was  that  they  enjoyed  seeing  the 
mules  so  frightened,  there  seemed  no  ex 
plaining.  They  never  took  dead  gophers 
up  there,  or  snajces ;  only  the  rabbits. 
Once  a  mule  was  so  frightened  that  he 
plunged  till  he  broke  his  halter,  got  free, 
and  ran  off  down  the  hill  ;  and  the  men 
had  a  big  chase  before  they  overtook 
him. 

But  the  queerest  thing  of  all  that  hap 
pened,  was  that  the  cats  adopted  a  skunk  ; 


102  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

or  else  it  was  the  skunk  that  adopted  the 
cats ;  I  don't  know  which  would  be  the 
proper  way  of  stating  it ;  but  at  any  rate 
the  skunk  joined  the  family,  lived  with 
them  in  the  woodpile,  came  with  them 
every  morning  to  be  fed,  and  went  off  with 
them  hunting  gophers  every  day.  It 
must  have  been  there  some  time  before 
Jim  noticed  it,  for  when  he  first  saw  it,  it 
was  already  on  the  most  familiar^  and 
friendly  terms  with  all  the  cats.  It  was  a 
pretty  little  black  and  white  creature,  and 
looked  a  good  deal  like  one  of  Mexican's 
kittens. 

Finally  it  became  altogether  too  friendly  : 
Jim  found  it  in  the  kitchen  cellar  one  day  ; 
and  a  day  or  two  after  that,  it  actually 


OF  CONNORLOA.  103 

walked  into  the  house.  Mr.  Connor  was 
sitting  in  his  library  writing.  He  heard 
a  soft,  furry  foot  patting  on  the  floor,  and 
thought  it  \vas  Fairy.  Presently  he 
looked  up ;  and,  to  his  horror,  there  was 
the  cunning  little  black  and  white  skunk 
in  the  doorway,  looking  around  and  sniffing 
curiously  at  everything,  like  a  cat.  Mr. 
Connor  held  his  breath  and  did  not  dare 
stir,  for  fear  the  creature  should  take  it 
into  its  head  that  he  was  an  enemy.  See 
ing  everything  so  still,  the  skunk  walked 
in,  walked  around  both  library  and  dining- 
room,  taking  minute  observations  of  every 
thing  by  means  of  its  nose.  Then  it  softly 
patted  out  again,  across  the  hall,  and  out 
of  the  front  door,  down  the  veranda  steps. 


104  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

It  had  seemed  an  age  to  Mr.  Connor; 
he  could  hardly  help  laughing  too,  as 
he  sat  there  in  his  chair,  to  think  how 
helpless  he,  a  grown-up  man,  felt  before 
a  creature  no  bigger  than  that,  —  a  little 
thing  whose  neck  he  could  wring  with  one 
hand ;  and  yet  he  no  more  dared  to  touch 
it,  or  try  to  drive  it  out,  than  if  it  had  been 
a  roaring  lion.  As  soon  as  it  was  fairly 
out  of  the  way,  Mr.  Connor  went  in  search 
of  Jim. 

"  Jim,"  said  he,  "  that  skunk  you  were 
telling  me  about,  that  the  cats  had  adopted, 
seems  to  be  thinking  of  adopting  me  ;  he 
spent  some  time  in  the  library  with  me 
this  morning,  looking  me  over ;  and  I  am 
afraid  he  liked  me  and  the  place  much  too 


OF  CONNORLOA.  105 

well.  I  should  like  to  have  him  killed. 
Can  you  manage  it?" 

"  Yes,  sir,"  laughed  Jim.  "  I  was  think 
ing  I  'd  have  to  kill  him.  I  caught  him 
in  the  cellar  a  day  or  two  since,  and  I 
thought  he  was  getting  to  feel  too  much 
at  home.  I  '11  fix  him/' 

So  the  next  morning  Jim  took  a  particu 
larly  nice  and  tempting  piece  of  meat, 
covered  it  with  poison,  and  just  as  the  cats' 
breakfast  was  finished,  and  the  cats  slowly 
dispersing,  he  threw  this  tidbit  directly  at 
the  little  skunk.  He  swallowed  it  greed 
ily,  and  before  noon  he  was  dead. 

Jim  could  not  help  being  sorry  when 
he  saw  him  stretched  out  stiff  near  his 
home  in  the  woodpile.  "  He  was  a  pert 


106  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

little  rascal  ;  "  said  Jim.  "  I  did  kind  o' 
hate  to  kill  him;  but  he  should  have  stayed 
with  his  own  folks,  if  he  wanted  to  be  let 
alone.  It 's  too  dangerous  having  skunks 
round." 

In  less  than  a  year's  time,  there  was  not 
a  rabbit  to  be  seen  on  Mr.  Connor's 
grounds,  and  only  now  and  then  a  gopher, 
the  hunter  cats  had  done  their  work 
so  thoroughly. 

But  there  was  one  other  enemy  that  Mr. 
Connor  would  have  to  be  rid  of,  before  he 
could  have  any  great  success  with  his  fruit 
orchards.  You  will  be  horrified  to  hear 
the  name  of  this  enemy.  It  was  the  linnet. 
Yes,  the  merry,  chirping,  confiding  little 
linnets,  with  their  pretty  red  heads  and 


OF  CONNORLOA.  107 

bright  eyes,  they  also  were  enemies,  and 
must  be  killed.  They  were  too  fond  of 
apricots  and  peaches  and  pears  and  rasp 
berries,  and  all  other  nice  fruits. 

If  birds  only  had  sense  enough,  when 
they  want  a  breakfast  or  dinner  of  fruit, 
to  make  it  off  one,  or  even  two,  —  eat  the 
peach  or  the  pear  or  whatever  it  might  be 
all  up,  as  we  do,  —  they  might  be  tolerated 
in  orchards ;  nobody  would  grudge  a  bird 
one  peach  or  cherry.  But  that  is  n't  their 
way.  They  like  to  hop  about  in  the  tree, 
and  take  a  nip  out  of  first  one,  then  an 
other,  and  then  another,  till  half  the  fruit  on 
the  tree  has  been  bitten  into  and  spoiled. 
In  this  way,  they  ruin  bushels  of  fruit 
every  season. 


1 08  THE  HUNTER  CA  TS 

"  I  wonder  if  we  could  not  teach  the  cats 
to  hunt  linnets,  Jim,"  said  Mr.  Connor  one 
morning.  It  was  at  the  breakfast-table. 

"  O  Uncle  George  !  the  dear  sweet  little 
linnets !  "  exclaimed  Rea,  ready  to  cry. 

"  Yes,  my  dear  sweet  little  girl,"  said 
Uncle  George.  "  The  dear  sweet  little 
linnets  will  not  leave  us  a  single  whole 
peach  or  apricot  or  cherry  to  eat." 

"No!"  said  Jusy,  "they're  a  perfect 
nuisance.  They  Ve  pecked  at  every  apri 
cot  on  the  trees  already." 

"  I  don't  care,"  said  Rea.  "  Why  can't 
they  have  some?  I'd  just  as  soon  eat 
after  a  linnet  as  not.  Their  little  bills 
must  be  all  clean  and  sweet.  Don't  have 
them  killed,  Uncle  George." 


OF  CONNORLOA.  109 

"  No  danger  but  that  there  will  be 
enough  left,  dear,"  said  Uncle  George. 
"  However  many  we  shoot,  there  will  be 
enough  left.  I  believe  we  might  kill 
a  thousand  to-day  and  not  know  the 
difference." 

The  cats  had  already  done  a  good  deal 
at  hunting  linnets  on  their  own  account,  in 
a  clandestine  and  irregular  manner.  They 
were  fond  of  linnet  flesh,  and  were  only 
too  glad  to  have  the  assistance  of  an  able- 
bodied  man  with  a  gun. 

When  they  first  comprehended  Jim's 
plan,  —  that  he  would  go  along  with  his 
gun,  and  they  should  scare  the  linnets  out 
of  the  trees,  wait  for  the  shot,  watch  to  see 
where  the  birds  fell,  and  then  run  and  pick 


no  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

them  up,  —  it  was  droll  to  see  how  clever 
they  became  in  carrying  it  out.  Retriever 
dogs  could  not  have  done  better.  The 
trouble  was,  that  Jim  could  shoot  birds 
faster  than  the  cats  could  eat  them ;  and 
no  cat  would  stir  from  his  bird  till  it  was 
eaten  up,  sometimes  feathers  and  all ;  and 
after  he  had  had  three  or  four,  he  did  n't 
care  about  any  more  that  day.  To  tell  the 
truth,  after  the  first  few  days,  they  seemed 
a  little  tired  of  the  linnet  diet,  and  did  not 
work  with  so  much  enthusiasm.  But  at 
first  it  was  droll,  indeed,  to  see  their  excite 
ment.  As  soon  as  Jim  appeared  with  his 
gun,  every  cat  in  sight  would  come  scam 
pering;  and  it  would  not  be  many  minutes 
before  the  rest  of  the  band  —  however  they 


JIM   AND  THE  CATS   HUNTING  LINNETS.  — Page  in. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  in 

might  have  been  scattered,  —  would  some 
how  or  other  get  wind  of  what  was  going 
on,  and  there  would  be  the  whole  seventeen 
in  a  pack  at  Jim's  heels,  all  keeping  a 
sharp  lookout  on  the  trees ;  then,  as  soon 
as  a  cat  saw  a  linnet,  he  would  make  for 
the  tree,  sometimes  crouch  under  the  tree, 
sometimes  run  up  it ;  in  either  case  the 
linnet  was  pretty  sure  to  fly  out :  pop, 
would  go  Jim's  rifle;  down  would  come 
the  linnet ;  helter-skelter  would  go  the  cats 
to  the  spot  where  it  fell ;  and  in  a  minute 
more,  there  would  be  nothing  to  be  seen 
of  that  linnet,  except  a  few  feathers  and 
a  drop  or  two  of  blood  on  the  ground. 

Jusy   liked   to   go   with   Jim    on   these 
hunting    expeditions.      But     Rea    would 


112  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

never  go.  She  used  to  sit  sorrowfully  at 
home,  and  listen  for  the  gunshots  ;  and  at 
every  shot  she  heard,  she  would  exclaim  to 
Anita,  "Oh,  dear!  Oh,  dear!  There's 
another  dear  little  linnet  dead.  I  think 
Jusy  is  a  cruel,  cruel  boy !  I  would  n't  see 
them  shot  for  anything,  and  I  don't  like 
the  cats  any  more." 

"  But,"  said  Anita,  "  my  little  senorita 
did  not  mind  having  the  gophers  killed. 
It  does  not  hurt  the  linnets  half  so  much  to 
be  shot  dead  in  one  second,  as  it  does  the 
gophers  to  be  caught  in  the  cats'  claws,  and 
torn  to  pieces  sometimes  while  they  are  yet 
alive.  The  shot-gun  kills  in  a  second." 

"  I  don't  care,"  said  Rea.  "  It  seems 
different ;  the  linnets  are  so  pretty." 


OF  CONNORLOA.  113 

"  That  is  not  a  reason  for  pitying  them 
any  more/'  said  Anita  gravely.  "  You  did 
not  find  those  old  Indians  you  saw  yes 
terday  pretty.  On  the  contrary,  they  were 
frightful  to  look  at ;  yet  you  pitied  them  so 
much  that  you  shed  tears." 

"  Oh,  yes  !  "  cried  Rea,  "  I  should  think  I 
did  ;  and,  Anita,  I  dreamed  about  them  all 
night  long.  I  am  going  to  ask  Uncle 
George  to  build  a  little  house  for  them 
up  in  the  canon.  There  is  plenty  of  room 
there  he  does  not  want ;  and  then  nobody 
could  drive  them  out  of  that  place  as  long 
as  they  live ;  and  I  could  carry  them  their 
dinner  every  day.  Don't  you  think  he 
will?" 

"  Bless    your    kind    little   heart ! "   said 


114  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

Anita.  "  That  would  be  asking  a  great 
deal  of  your  Uncle  George,  but  he  is  so 
kind,  perhaps  he  will.  If  somebody  does 
not  take  compassion  on  the  poor  things, 
they  will  starve,  that  is  certain/' 

"  I  shall  ask  him  the  minute  he  comes 
in,"  said  Rea.  "  I  am  going  down  on  the 
piazza  now  to  watch  for  him."  And  taking 
Fairy  in  her  arms,  Rea  hurried  downstairs, 
went  out  on  the  veranda,  and,  climbing 
up  into  the  hammock,  was  sound  asleep 
in  ten  minutes. 

She  was  waked  up  by  feeling  herself 
violently  swung  from  side  to  side,  and 
opening  her  eyes,  saw  Jusy  standing  by 
her  side,  his  face  flushed  with  the  heat, 
his  eyes  sparkling. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  115 

"  O  Rea !  "  he  said.  "  We  have  had  a 
splendid  hunt!  What  do  you  think  !  Jim 
has  shot  twenty  linnets  in  this  one  morn 
ing  !  and  that  Skipper,  he  's  eaten  five  of 
them  !  He 's  as  good  as  a  regular  hunting 
dog." 

"  Where  's  Uncle  George  ?  "  asked  Rea 
sleepily,  rubbing  her  eyes.  "  I  want  Uncle 
George !  I  don't  want  you  to  tell  me 
anything  about  the  cats'  eating  the  linnets. 
I  hate  them!  They're  cruel!" 

"  'T  is  n't  cruel  either !"  'retorted  Jusy. 
"  They  Ve  got  to  be  killed.  All  peo 
ple  that  have  orchards  have  to  kill 
birds." 

"  I  won't,  when  I  have  an  orchard,"  said 
Rea. 


Ii6  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

"  Then  you  won't  have  any  orchard. 
That  will  be  all,"  said  Jusy.  "At  least, 
you  won't  have  any  fruit  orchard.  You  '11 
have  just  a  tree  orchard." 

"  Well,  a  tree  orchard  is  good  enough  for 
anybody,"  replied  Rea  half  crossly  She 
was  not  yet  quite  wide  awake.  "  There 
is  plenty  of  fruit  in  stores,  to  buy.  We 
could  buy  our  fruit." 

"  Are  you  talking  in  your  sleep,  Rea  ?  " 
cried  Jusy,  looking  hard  at  her.  "  I  do 
believe  you  are !  What  ails  you  ?  The 
men  that  have  the  fruit  to  sell,  had  to  kill 
all  the  linnets  and  things,  just  the  same 
way,  or  else  they  would  n't  have  had  any 
fruit.  Can't  you  see?" 

No,  Rea  could  not  see  ;  and  what  was 


OF  CONNORLOA.  117 

more,  she  did  not  want  to  see  ;  and  as  the 
proverb  says,  "  There  are  none  so  blind  as 
those  who  won't  see." 

"  Don't  talk  any  more  about  it,  Jusy," 
she  said.  "  Do  you  think  Uncle  George 
would  build  a  little  house  up  the  canon  for 
poor  old  Ysidro  ?  " 

"  Who  1  "  exclaimed  Jusy. 

"  Oh,  you  cruel  boy !  "  cried  Rea.  "  You 
don't  think  of  anything  but  killing  linnets, 
and  such  cruel  things ;  I  think  you  are  real 
wicked.  Don't  you  know  those  poor  old 
Indians  we  saw  yesterday  ?  —  the  ones  that 
are  going  to  be  turned  out  of  their  house, 
down  in  San  Gabriel  by  the  church.  I 
have  been  thinking  about  them  ever  since  ; 
and  I  dreamed  last  night  that  Uncle 


n8  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

George  built  them  a  house.  I  'm  going  to 
ask  him  to." 

"  I  bet  you  anything  he  won't,  then," 
said  Jusy.  "The  horrid  old  beggars! 
He  would  n't  have  such  looking  things 
round ! " 

Rea  was  wide  awake  now.  She  fixed 
her  lovely  blue  eyes  on  Jusy's  face  with  a 
look  which  made  him  ashamed.  "  Jusy," 
she  said,  "  I  can't  help  it  if  you  are  older 
than  I  am  ;  I  must  say,  I  think  you  are 
cruel.  You  like  to  kill  linnets ;  and  now 
you  won't  be  sorry  for  these  poor  old 
Indians,  just  because  they  are  dirty  and 
horrid-looking.  You  'd  look  just  as  bad 
yourself,  if  your  skin  was  black,  and  you 
were  a  hundred  years  old,  and  had  n't  got 


OF  CONNORLOA.  119 

a  penny  in  the  world.  You  are  real  hard 
hearted,  Jusy,  I  do  think  you  are !  "  and 
the  tears  came  into  Rea's  eyes. 

"  What  is  all  this  ?  "  said  Uncle  George, 
coming  up  the  steps.  "  Not  quarrelling, 
my  little  people  !  " 

"  Oh,  no !  no !  "  cried  both  the  children 
eagerly. 

"  I  never  quarrel  with  Rea,"  added  Jusy 
proudly.  "  I  hope  I  am  old  enough  to 
know  better  than  that." 

"  I  'm  only  two  years  the  youngest,"  said 
Rea*  in  a  mortified  tone.  "  I  think  I  am 
old  enough  to  be  quarrelled  with ;  and  I 
do  think  you  're  cruel,  Jusy." 

This  made  Uncle  George  smile.  "  Look 
out !  "  he  said.  "  You  will  be  in  a  quarrel 


120  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

yet,  if  you  are  not  careful.  What  is  it, 
Rea?" 

While  Rea  was  collecting  her  thoughts 
to  reply,  Jusy  took  the  words  out  of  her 
mouth. 

"  She  thinks  I  am  cruel,  because  I  said  I 
did  n't  believe  you  would  build  a  house  for 
Indians  up  in  your  canon." 

"  It  was  not  that !  "  cried  Rea.  "  You  are 
real  mean,  Jusy!  " 

And  so  I  think,  myself,  he  was.  He  had 
done  just  the  thing  which  is  so  often  done 
in  this  world,  —  one  of  the  unfairest  and 
most  provoking  of  things ;  he  had  told 
the  truth  in  such  a  way  as  to  give  a  wrong 
impression,  which  is  not  so  very  far  differ 
ent,  in  my  opinion,  from  telling  a  lie. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  121 

"  A  home  for  Indians  up  in  the  canon !  " 
exclaimed  Uncle  George,  drawing  Rea  to 
him,  and  seating  her  on  his  knee.  "  Did 
my  little  tender-hearted  Rea  want  me  to 
do  that?  It  would  take  a  very  big  house, 
girlie,  for  all  the  poor  Indians  around 
here ;  "  and  Uncle  George  looked  lovingly 
at  Rea,  and  kissed  her  hair,  as  she  nestled 
her  head  into  his  neck.  "Just  like  her 
mother,"  he  thought.  "  She  would  have 
turned  every  house  into  an  asylum  if  she 
could." 

"  Oh,  not  for  all  the  Indians,  Uncle 
George,"  said  Rea,  encouraged  by  his  kind 
smile,  —  "I  am  not  such  a  fool  as  Jusy 
thinks, —  only  for  those  two  old  ones  that 
are  going  to  be  turned  out  of  their  home 


122  THE  HUNTER    CATS. 

they  Ve  always  lived  in.  You  know  the 
ones  I  mean." 

"  Ah,  yes,  —  old  Ysidro  and  his  wife. 
Well,  Rea,  I  had  already  thought  of  that 
myself.  So  you  were  not  so  much  ahead 
of  me." 

"  There  !  "  exclaimed  Rea  triumphantly, 
turning  to  Jusy.  "  What  do  you  say 
now?" 

Jusy  did  not  know  exactly  what  to 
say,  he  was  so  astonished ;  and  as  he 
saw  Jim  and  the  cats  coming  up  the  road 
at  that  minute,  he  gladly  took  the  opportu 
nity  to  spring  down  from  the  veranda  and 
run  to  meet  them. 


IV. 

THE  story  of  old  Ysidro  was  indeed  a 
sad  one ;  and  I  think,  with  Rea,  that  any 
one  must  be  hard-hearted,  who  did  not  pity 
him.  He  was  a  very  old  Indian ;  nobody 
knew  how  old ;  but  he  looked  as  if  he 
must  be  a  hundred  at  least.  Ever  since 
he  could  remember,  he  had  lived  in  a  little 
house  in  San  Gabriel.  The  missionaries 
who  first  settled  San  Gabriel  had  given  a 
small  piece  of  land  to  his  father,  and  on  it 


124  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

his  father  had  built  this  little  house  of 
rough  bricks  made  of  mud.  Here  Ysidro 
was  born,  and  here  he  had  always  lived. 
His  father  and  mother  had  been  dead  a 
long  time.  His  brothers  and  sisters  had 
all  died  or  gone  away  to  live  in  some  other 
place. 

When  he  was  a  young  man,  he  had 
married  a  girl  named  Carmena.  She 
was  still  living,  almost  as  old  as  he ; 
all  their  children  had  either  died,  or 
married  and  gone  away,  and  the  two  old 
people  lived  alone  together  in  the  little 
mud  house. 

They  were  very  poor;  but  they  man 
aged  to  earn  just  enough  to  keep  from 
starving.  There  was  a  little  land  around 


OF  CONNORLOA.  125 

the  house, —  not  more  than  an  acre  ;  but  it 
was  as  much  as  the  old  man  could  culti 
vate.  He  raised  a  few  vegetables,  chiefly 
beans,  and  kept  some  hens. 

Carmena  had  done  fine  washing  for  the 
San  Gabriel  people  as  long  as  her  strength 
held  out ;  but  she  had  not  been  able  for 
some  years  to  do  that.  All  she  could  do 
now  was  to  embroider  and  make  lace. 
She  had  to  stay  in  bed  most  of  the  time, 
for  she  had  the  rheumatism  in  her  legs 
and  feet  so  she  could  but  just  hobble  about; 
but  there  she  sat  day  after  day,  propped  up 
in  her  bed,  sewing.  It  was  lucky  that  the 
rheumatism  had  not  gone  into  her  hands, 
for  the  money  she  earned  by  making  lace 
was  the  chief  part  of  their  living. 


126  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

Sometimes  Ysidro  earned  a  little  by 
days'  works  in  the  fields  or  gardens ;  but 
he  was  so  old,  people  did  not  want  him  if 
they  could  get  anybody  else,  and  nobody 
would  pay  him  more  than  half  wages. 

When  he  could  not  get  anything  else  to 
do,  he  made  mats  to  sell.  He  made  them 
out  of  the  stems  of  a  plant  called  yucca; 
but  he  had  to  go  a  long  way  to  get  these 
plants.  It  was  slow,  tedious  work  making 
the  mats,  and  the  store-keepers  gave  him 
only  seventy-five  cents  apiece  for  them  ;  so 
it  was  very  little  he  could  earn  in  that 
way. 

Was  not  this  a  wretched  life  ?  Yet  they 
seemed  always  cheerful,  and  they  were  as 
much  attached  to  this  poor  little  mud 


OF  CONNORLOA.  127 

hovel  as  any  of  you  can  be  to  your  own 
beautiful  homes. 

Would  you  think  any  one  could  have 
the  heart  to  turn  those  two  poor  old  people 
out  of  their  home  ?  It  would  not  seem 
as  if  a  human  being  could  be  found  who 
would  do  such  a  thing.  But  there  was. 
He  was  a  lawyer ;  I  could  tell  you  his 
true  name,  but  I  will  not.  He  had  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  all  sorts  of  records  and  law 
papers,  about  land  and  titles  and  all  such 
things. 

There  has  always  been  trouble  about  the 
ownership  of  land  in  California,  because 
first  it  belonged  to  Spain,  and  then  it 
belonged  to  Mexico;  and  then  we  fought 
with  Mexico,  and  Mexico  gave  it  to  us. 


1 28  THE  HUNTER  CA  TS 

So  you  can  easily  see  that  where  lands 
are  passed  along  in  that  way,  through 
so  many  hands,  it  might  often  be  hard  to 
tell  to  whom  they  justly  belonged. 

Of  course  this  poor  old  Ysidro  did  not 
know  anything  about  papers.  He  could 
not  read  or  write.  The  missionaries  gave 
the  land  to  his  father  more  than  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  his  father  gave  it  to  him, 
and  that  was  all  Ysidro  knew  about  it. 

Well,  this  lawyer  was  rummaging 
among  papers  and  titles  and  maps  of 
estates  in  San  Gabriel,  and  he  found  out 
that  there  was  this  little  bit  of  land  near 
the  church,  which  had  been  overlooked  by 
everybody,  and  to  which  nobody  had  any 
written  title.  He  went  over  and  looked 


OF  CONNORLOA.  129 

at  it,  and  found  Ysidro's  house  on  it ;  and 
Ysidro  told  him  he  had  always  lived  there ; 
but  the  lawyer  did  not  care  for  that. 

Land  is  worth  a  great  deal  of  money 
now  in  San  Gabriel.  This  little  place  of 
Ysidro's  was  worth  a  good  many  hundred 
dollars ;  and  this  lawyer  was  determined  to 
have  it.  So  he  went  to  work  in  ways  I  can 
not  explain  to  you,  for  I  do  not  understand 
them  myself;  and  you  could  not  under 
stand  them  even  if  I  could  write  them 
out  exactly :  but  it  was  all  done  accord 
ing  to  law ;  and  the  lawyer  got  it  decided 
by  the  courts  and  the  judges  in  San  Fran 
cisco  that  this  bit  of  land  was  his. 

When  this  was  all  done,  he  had  not  quite 
boldness  enough  to  come  forward  himself, 


130  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

and  turn  the  poor  old  Indians  out.  Even 
he  had  some  sense  of  shame  ;  so  he  slyly 
sold  the  land  to  a  man  who  did  not  know 
anything  about  the  Indians  being  there. 

You  see  how  cunning  this  was  of 
him  !  When  it  came  to  the  Indians  being 
turned  out,  and  the  land  taken  by  the 
new  owner,  this  lawyer's  name  would  not 
need  to  come  out  in  the  matter  at  all. 
But  it  did  come  out ;  so  that  a  few  people 
knew  what  a  mean,  cruel  thing  he  had 
done.  Just  for  the  sake  of  the  price  of  an 
acre  of  land,  to  turn  two  aged  helpless  peo 
ple  out  of  house  and  home  to  starve !  Do 
you  think  those  dollars  will  ever  do  that 
man  any  good  as  long  as  he  lives  ?  No, 
not  if  they  had  been  a  million. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  131 

Well,  Mr.  Connor  was  one  of  the  per 
sons  who  had  found  out  about  this ;  and 
he  had  at  first  thought  he  would  help 
Ysidro  fight,  in  the  courts,  to  keep,  his 
place ;  but  he  found  there  would  be  no  use 
in  that.  The  lawyer  had  been  cunning 
enough  to  make  sure  he  was  safe,  before 
he  went  on  to  steal  the  old  Indian's  farm. 
The  law  was  on  his  side.  Ysidro  did  not 
really  own  the  land,  according  to  law, 
though  he  had  lived  on  it  all  his  life, 
and  it  had  been  given  to  his  father  by 
the  missionaries,  almost  a  hundred  years 
ago. 

Does  it  not  seem  strange  that  the  law 
could  do  such  a  thing  as  that  ?  When  the 
boys  who  read  this  story  grow  up  to  be 


132  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

men,  I  hope  they  will  do  away  with  these 
bad  laws,  and  make  better  ones. 

The  way  Rea  had  found  out  about  old 
Ysidro  was  this:  when  Jim  went  to  the 
post-office  for  the  mail,  in  the  mornings,  he 
used  generally  to  take  Anita  and  Rea  in  the 
wagon  with  him,  and  leave  them  at  Anita's 
mother's  while  he  drove  on  to  the  post- 
office,  which  was  a  mile  farther. 

Rea  liked  this  very  much.  Anita's 
mother  had  a  big  blue  and  green  parrot, 
that  could  talk  in  both  Spanish  and 
English ;  and  Rea  was  never  tired  of  lis 
tening  to  her.  She  always  carried  her 
sugar;  and  she  used  to  cock  her  head  on 
one  side,  and  call  out,  "  Seriorita  !  senorita  ! 
Polly  likes  sugar !  sugar !  sugar  !  "  as  soon 


OF  CONNORLOA.  133 

as  she  saw  Rea  coming  in  at  the  door.  It 
was  the  only  parrot  Rea  had  ever  seen, 
and  it  seemed  to  her  the  most  wonderful 
creature  in  the  world. 

Ysidro's  house  was  next  to  Anita's 
mother's ;  and  Rea  often  saw  the  old  man 
at  work  in  his  garden,  or  sitting  on  his 
door-step  knitting  lace,  with  needles  as  fine 
as  pins. 

One  day  Anita  took  her  into  the  house 
to  see  Carmena,  who  was  sitting  in  bed  at 
work  on  her  embroidery.  When  Carmena 
heard  that  Rea  was  Mr.  Connor's  niece, 
she  insisted  upon  giving  her  a  beautiful 
piece  of  lace  which  she  had  made.  Anita 
did  not  wish  to  take  it,  but  old  Carmena 
said,  — 


134  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

"  You  must  take  it.  Mr.  Connor  has 
given  us  much  money,  and  there  was 
never  anything  I  could  do  for  him.  Now 
if  his  little  senorita  will  take  this,  it  will 
be  a  pleasure." 

So  Rea  carried  the  lace  home,  and 
showed  it  to  her  Uncle  George,  and  he 
said  she  might  keep  it ;  and  it  was  only 
a  few  weeks  after  this  that  when  Anita 
and  Rea  went  down  to  San  Gabriel,  one 
day,  they  found  the  old  couple  in  great 
distress,  the  news  having  come  that  they 
were  going  to  be  turned  out  of  their 
house. 

And  it  was  the  night  after  this  visit  that 
Rea  dreamed  about  the  poor  old  creatures 
all  night,  and  the  very  next  morning  that 


OF  CONNORL OA.  135 

she  asked  her  Uncle  George  if  he  would 
not  build  them  a  house  in  his  canon. 

After  lunch,  Mr.  Connor  said  to  Rea,  — 

"  I  am  going  to  drive  this  afternoon, 
Rea.  Would  you  like  to  come  with 
me?"  • 

His  eyes  twinkled  as  he  said  it,  and  Rea 
cried  out, — 

"  Oh !  oh !  It  is  to  see  Ysidro  and 
Carmena,  I  am  sure  1  " 

"  Yes,"  said  her  uncle ;  "  I  am  going 
down  to  tell  them  you  are  going  to  build 
them  a  house." 

"  Uncle  George,  will  you  really,  truly,  do 
it  ? "  said  Rea.  "  I  think  you  are  the 
kindest  man  in  all  the  world !  "  and  she 
ran  for  her  hat,  and  was  down  on  the 


J3<3  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

veranda  waiting,  long  before  the  horses 
were  ready. 

They  found  old  Ysidro  sitting  on  the 
ground,  leaning  against  the  wall  of  his 
house.  He  had  his  face  covered  up  with 
both  hands,  his  elbows  leaning  on  his 
knees. 

"  Oh,  look  at  him  !  He  is  crying,  Uncle 
George,"  said  Rea. 

"  No,  dear,"  replied  Mr.  Connor.  "  He 
is  not  crying.  Indian  men  very  rarely 
cry.  He  is  feeling  all.  the  worse  that  he 
will  not  let  himself  cry,  but  shuts  the 
tears  all  back." 

"  Yes,  that  is  lots  worse,"  said  Rea. 

11  How  do  you  know,  pet  ?  "  laughingly 
said  her  uncle.  "  Did  you  ever  try  it  ?  " 


OF  CONNORLOA.  137 

11 1  Ve  tried  to  try  it,"  said  Rea,  "  and  it 
felt  so  much  worse,  I  could  n't." 

It  was  not  easy  at  first  to  make  old 
Ysidro  understand  what  Mr.  Connor 
meant.  He  could  not  believe  that  any 
body  would  give  him  a  house  and  home 
for  nothing.  He  thought  Mr.  Connor 
wanted  to  get  him  to  come  and  work ;  and, 
being  an  honest  old  fellow,  he  was  afraid 
Mr.  Connor  did  not  know  how  little 
strength  he  had;  so  he  said, — 

"  Senor  Connor,  I  am  very  old ;  I  am 
sick  too.  I  am  not  worth  hiring  to 


work.' 


"  Bless  you !  "  said  Mr.  Connor.  "  I 
don't  want  you  to  work  any  more  than  you 
do  now.  I  am  only  offering  you  a  place 


138  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

to  live  in.  If  you  are  strong  enough  to  do 
a  day's  work,  now  and  then,  I  shall  pay  you 
for  it,  just  as  I  would  pay  anybody  else/' 

Ysidro  gazed  earnestly  in  Mr.  Connor's 
face,  while  he  said  this ;  he  gazed  as  if  he 
were  trying  to  read  his  very  thoughts. 
Then  he  looked  up  to  the  sky,  and 
he  said, — 

"  Senor,  Ysidro  has  no  words.  He  can 
not  speak.  Will  you  come  into  the  house 
and  tell  Carmena?  She  will  not  believe, 
if  I  tell  it." 

So  Mr.  Connor  and  Rea  went  into  the 
house,  and  there  sat  Carmena  in  bed, 
trying  to  sew  ;  but  the  tears  were  running 
out  of  her  eyes.  When  she  saw  Mr.  Con 
nor  and  Rea  coming  in  at  the  door,  she 


OF  CONNORLOA.  139 

threw  up  her  hands  and  burst  out  into 
loud  crying. 

"  O  senor  1  senor !  "  she  said.  "  They 
drive  us  out  of  our  house.  Can  you  help  us? 
Can  you  speak  for  us  to  the  wicked  man?  " 

Ysidro  went  up  to  the  bed  and  took  hold 
of  her  hand,  and,  pointing  with  his  other 
hand  to  Mr.  Connor,  said, — 

"  He  comes  from  God,  —  the  senor.  He 
will  help  us  !  " 

"  Can  we  stay  ?  "  cried  Carmena. 

Here  Rea  began  to  cry. 

"  Don't  cry,  Rea,"  said  Mr.  Connor. 
"  That  will  make  her  feel  worse." 

Rea  gulped  down  her  sobs,  enough  to 
say,— 

"  But  she  does  n't  want  to  come  into  the 


140  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

canon!  All  she  wants  is  to  stay  here!  She 
won't  be  glad  of  the  new  house." 

"  Yes,  she  will,  by  and  by,"  whispered 
Mr.  Connor.  "  Stop  crying,  that 's  my 
good  Rea." 

But  Rea  could  not.  She  stood  close  to 
the  bed,  looking  into  old  Carmena's  dis 
tressed  face ;  and  the  tears  would  come, 
spite  of  all  her  efforts. 

When  Carmena  finally  understood  that 
not  even  Mr.  Connor,  with  all  his  good 
will  and  all  his  money,  could  save  them 
from  leaving  their  home,  she  cried  again  as 
hard  as  at  first ;  and  Ysidro  felt  ashamed 
of  her,  for  he  was  afraid  Mr.  Connor  would 
think  her  ungrateful.  But  Mr.  Connor 
understood  it  very  well. 


OF  CONNORLOA.  141 

"  I  have  lived  only  two  years  in  my 
house,"  he  said  to  Rea,  "  and  I  would  not 
change  it  for  one  twice  as  good  that  any 
body  could  offer  me.  Think  how  any  one 
must  feel  about  a  house  he  has  lived  in  all 
his  life." 

"  But  it  is  a  horrible  little  house,  Uncle 
George,"  said  Rea,  — "  the  dirtiest  hovel  I 
ever  saw.  It  is  worse  than  they  are  in 
Italy." 

"  I  do  not  believe  that  makes  much  dif 
ference,  dear,"  said  Uncle  George.  "  It  is 
their  home,  all  the  same,  as  if  it  were  large 
and  nice.  It  is  that  one  loves." 

Just  as  Mr.  Connor  and  Rea  came  out 
of  the  house,  who  should  come  riding  by, 
but  the  very  man  that  had  caused  all  this 


142  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

unhappiness, —  the  lawyer  who  had  taken 
Ysidro's  land !  He  was  with  the  man  to 
whom  he  had  sold  it.  They  were  riding  up 
and  down  in  the  valley,  looking  over  all 
their  possessions,  and  planning  what  big 
vineyards  and  orchards  they  would  plant 
and  how  much  money  they  would  make. 

When  this  man  saw  Mr.  Connor,  he 
turned  as  red  as  a  turkey-cock's  throat. 
He  knew  very  well  what  Mr.  Connor 
thought  of  him ;  but  he  bowed  very 
low. 

Mr.  Connor  returned  his  bow,  but  with 
such  a  stern  and  scornful  look  on  his  face, 
that  Rea  exclaimed,  — 

"  What  is  the  matter,  Uncle  George  ? 
What  makes  you  look  so?" 


OF  CONNORLOA.  143 

"  That  man  is  a  bad  man,  dear,"  he  re 
plied  ;  "  and  has  the  kind  of  badness  I  most 
despise."  But  he  did  not  tell  her  that  he 
was  the  man  who  was  responsible  for  the 
Indians  being  driven  out  of  their  home. 
He  thought  it  better  for  Rea  not  to  know  it. 

"  Are  there  different  sorts  of  badness,  — 
some  badnesses  worse  than  others  ?  "  asked 
Rea. 

"  I  don't  know  whether  one  kind  is 
really  any  worse  than  another,"  said  Mr. 
Connor.  "  But  there  are  some  kinds  which 
seem  to  me  twice  as  bad  as  others ;  and 
meanness  and  cruelty  to  helpless  creatures 
seem  to  me  the  very  worst  of  all." 

"  To  me  too  1  "  said  Rea.  "  Like  turn 
ing  out  poor  Ysidro." 


H4  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

11  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Connor.  "  That  is  just 
one  of  the  sort  I  mean." 

Just  before  they  reached  the  beginning 
of  the  lands  of  Connorloa,  they  crossed 
the  grounds  of  a  Mr.  Finch,  who  had  a 
pretty  house  and  large  orange  orchards. 
Mr.  Finch  had  one  son,  Harry,  about 
Jusy's  age,  and  the  two  boys  were  great 
cronies. 

As  Mr.  Connor  turned  the  horses'  heads 
into  these  grounds,  he  saw  Jusy  and  Harry 
under  the  trees  in  the  distance. 

"  Why,  there  is  Jusy,"  he  said. 

"  Yes,"  said  Rea.  "  Harry  came  for  him 
before  lunch.  He  said  he  had  something 
to  show  him." 

As  soon  as  Jusy   caught   sight   of  the 


OF  CONNORLOA.  145 

carriage,    he    came    running    towards     it, 
crying,  — 

"  Oh,  Uncle  George,  stop  1  Rea  !  come  ! 
I  Ve  found  Snowball !  Come,  see  him  !  " 

Snowball  had  been  missing  for  nearly  a 
month,  and  nobody  could  imagine  what 
had  become  of  him.  They  finally  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  must  have  got 
killed  in  some  way. 

Mr.  Connor  stopped  the  horses;  and  Rea 
jumped  out  and  ran  after  Jusy,  and  Mr. 
Connor  followed.  They  found  the  boys 
watching  excitedly,  one  at  each  end  of  a 
little  bridge  over  the  ditch,  through  which 
the  water  was  brought  down  for  irrigating 
Mr.  Finch's  orchards.  Harry's  dogs  were 
there  too,  one  at  each  end  of  the  bridge, 


10 


146  THE  HUNTER   CATS 

barking,  yelping,  watching  as  excitedly  as 
the  boys.     But  no  Snowball. 

"  Where  is  he  ?  "  cried  Rea. 

"  In  under  there,"  exclaimed  Jusy. 
"  He  's  got  a  rabbit  in  there  ;  he  '11  be 
out  presently." 

Sure  enough,  there  he  was,  plainly  to 
be  heard,  scuffling  and  spitting  under  the 
bridge. 

The  poor  little  rabbit  ran  first  to  one 
.end  of  the  bridge,  then  to  the  other,  trying 
to  get  out ;  but  at  each  end  he  found  a 
dog,  barking  to  drive  him  back. 

Presently  Snowball  appeared  with  the 
dead  rabbit  in  his  teeth.  Dropping  it 
on  the  ground,  he  looked  up  at  the  dogs, 
as  much  as  to  say,  "  There !  Can't  I 


OF  CONNORLOA.  147 

hunt  rabbits  as  well  as  you  do?"  Then 
they  all  three,  the  two  dogs  and  he,  fell 
to  eating  the  rabbit  in  the  friendliest 
manner. 

"  Don't  you  think! "  cried  Jusy.  "  He  's 
been  hunting  this  way,  with  these  dogs, 
all  this  time.  You  see  they  are  so  big 
they  can't  get  in  under  the  bridge,  and 
he  can ;  so  they  drive  the  rabbits  in 
under  there,  and  he  goes  in  and  gets 
them.  Is  n't  he  smart  ?  Harry  first  saw 
him  doing  it  two  weeks  ago,  he  says. 
He  did  n't  know  it  was  our  cat,  and  he 
wondered  whose  it  could  be.  But  Snow 
ball  and  the  dogs  are  great  friends. 
They  go  together  all  the  time;  and 
wherever  he  is,  if  he  hears  them  bark, 


148  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

he  knows  they  Ve  started  up  something, 
and  he  comes  flying !  I  think  it  is  just 
splendid !  " 

"  Poor  little  thing ! "  said  Rea,  looking  at 
the  fast-disappearing  rabbit. 

"  Why,  you  eat  them  yourself!  "  shouted 
Jusy.  "You  said  it  was  as  good  as 
chicken,  the  other  day.  It  is  n't  any  worse 
for  cats  and  dogs  to  eat  them,  than  it  is 
for  us ;  is  it,  Uncle  George  ?  " 

"  I  think  Jusy  has  the  best  of  the  argu 
ment  this  time,  pet,"  said  Uncle  George, 
looking  fondly  at  Jusy. 

"  Girls  are  always  that  way,"  said  Harry 
politely.  "  My  sisters  are  just  so.  They 
can't  bear  to  see  anything  killed." 

After  this  day,  Rea  spent  most  of  her 


OF  CONNORLOA.  149 

time  in  the  canon,  watching  the  men  at 
work  on  Ysidro's  house. 

The  canon  was  a  wild  place  ;  it  was  a 
sort  of  split  in  the  rocky  sides  of  the 
mountain;  at  the  top  it  was  not  much 
more  than  two  precipices  joined  together, 
with  just  room  enough  for  a  brook  to  come 
down.  You  can  see  in  the  picture  where 
it  was,  though  it  looks  there  like  little 
more  than  a  groove  in  the  -rocks.  But  it 
was  really  so  big  in  some  places  that  huge 
sycamore  trees  grew  in  it,  and  there  were 
little  spaces  of  good  earth,  where  Mr. 
Connor  had  planted  orchards. 

It  was  near  these,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
canon,  that  he  put  Ysidro's  house.  It  was 
built  out  of  mud  bricks,  called  adobe,  as 


150  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

near  as  possible  like  Ysidro's  old  house,  — 
two  small  rooms,  and  a  thatched  roof  made 
of  reeds,  which  grew  in  a  swamp. 

But  Mr.  Connor  did  not  call  it  Ysidro's 
house.  He  called  it  Rea's  house;  and  the 
men  called*  it  "  the  senorita's  house."  It 
was  to  be  her  own,  Mr.  Connor  said,  —  her 
own  to  give  as  a  present  to  Ysidro  and 
Carmena, 

When  the  day  came  for  them  to  move 
in,  Jim  went  down  with  the  big  wagon, 
and  a  bed  in  the  bottom,  to  bring  old 
Carmena  up.  There  was  plenty  of  room 
in  the  wagon,  besides,  for  the  few  little  bits 
of  furniture  they  had. 

Mr.  Connor  and  Jusy  and  Rea  were  at 
the  house  waiting,  when  they  came.  The 


OF  CONNORL OA.  151 

cook  had  made  a  good  supper  of  meat  and 
potato,  and  Rea  had  put  it  on  the  table,  all 
ready  for  them. 

When  they  lifted  Carmena  out  of  the 
wagon,  she  held,  tight  clutched  in  her 
hand,  a  small  basket  filled  with  earth ;  she 
seemed  hardly  willing  to  let  go  of  it  for  a 
moment. 

"  What  is  that  ?  "  said  Jusy. 

"  A  few  handfuls  of  the  earth  that  was 
ours,"  replied  Ysidro.  "  We  have  brought 
it  with  us,  to  keep  it  always.  The  man 
who  has  our  home  will  not  miss  it." 

The  tears  came  into  Mr.  Connor's  eyes, 
and  he  turned  away. 

Rea  did  not  understand.  She  looked 
puzzled ;  so  did  Jusy. 


152  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

Jim  explained.  "  The  Indian  women 
often  do  that,"  he  said.  "  When  they  have 
to  move  away  from  a  home  they  love  they 
carry  a  little  of  the  earth  with  them  ;  some 
times  they  put  it  in  a  little  bag,  and  wear 
it  hanging  on  their  necks ;  sometimes  they 
put  it  under  their  heads  at  night." 

"  Yes,"  said  Carmena,  who  had  listened 
to  what  Jim  said.  "  One  can  sleep  better 
on  the  earth  that  one  loves." 

"  I  say,  Rea ! "  cried  Jusy.  "  It  is  a 
shame  they  had  to  come  away !  " 

"  I  told  you  so,  Jusy,"  said  Rea  gently. 
"  But  you  did  n't  seem  to  care  then." 

"  Well,  I  do  now  1  "  he  cried.  "  I  did  n't 
think  how  bad  they  'd  feel.  Now  if  it  were 
in  Italy,  I  'd  go  and  tell  the  King  all  about 


OF  CONNORLOA.  153 

it.  Who  is  there  to  tell  here  ?  "  he  con 
tinued,  turning  to  his  Uncle  George. 
"  Who  is  there  here,  to  tell  about  such 
things  ?  There  must  be  somebody." 

Mr.  Connor  smiled  sadly.  "  The  trouble 
is,  there  are  too  many,"  he  said. 

"  Who  is  above  all  the  rest  ?  "  persisted 
Jusy.  "  Is  n't  there  somebody  at  the  top, 
as  our  King  is  in  Italy  ?  " 

"  Yes,  there  is  one  above  all  the  rest," 
replied  Mr.  Connor.  "  We  call  him  the 
President." 

"  Well,  why  don't  you  write  and  tell  him 

about   Ysidro  ? "    said    Jusy.     "  I    wish    I 

could    see     him,     I  'd    tell    him.     It 's     a 

shame!  " 

"  Even  the  President  could  not  help  this, 


154  THE  HUNTER    CATS 

Jusy,"  said  Mr.  Connor.  "The  law  was 
against  poor  Ysidro  ;  there  was  no  help ; 
and  there  are  thousands  and  thousands  of 
Indians  in  just  the  same  condition  he  is." 

"  Does  n't  the  President  make  the  laws  ?  " 
said  Jusy. 

"  No,"  said  Mr.  Connor.  "  Congress 
makes  the  laws." 

"Oh,"  said  Jusy,  "like  our  Parliament." 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Connor. 

Jusy  said  no  more ;  but  he  thought  of 
little  else  all  the  afternoon ;  and  at  bedtime 
he  said  to  Rea,  — 

"  Rea,  I  am  real  sorry  I  did  n't  care 
about  those  old  Indians  at  first,  when 
you  did.  But  I  'm  going  to  be  good  to 
them  now,  and  help  them  all  I  can ;  and 


OF  CONNORLOA.  155 

I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  when  I  am 
a  man  I  shall  not  go  to  Italy,  as  I  said 
I  would,  to  be  an  officer  for  the  King.  I 
shall  stay  here,  and  be  an  officer  for  the 
American  President,  instead  ;  and  I  shall 
tell  him  about  Ysidro,  and  about  all  the 
rest  of  the  Indians." 


There  is  nothing  more  to  be  told  about 
the  Hunter  Cats.  By  degrees  they  dis 
appeared  :  some  of  them  went  to  live  at 
other  houses  in  the  San  Gabriel  Valley; 
some  of  them  ran  off  and  lived  a  wild 
life  in  the  canons;  and  some  of  them, 
I  am  afraid,  must  have  died  for  want  of 
food. 


'56 


THE  HUNTER    CATS. 


Rea  was  glad  when  they  were  all  gone ; 
but  Jusy  missed  the  fun  of  seeing  them 
hunt  gophers  and  linnets. 

Perhaps,  some  day,  I  shall  write  another 
story,  and  tell  you  more  about  Jusy  and 
Rea,  and  how  they  tried  to  help  the 
Indians. 


MATS  MADE  BY  YSIDRO.  —  Page  126. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 


This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

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General  Library 

University  of  Calif  or  nit 

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GENERAL  LIBRARY -U.C.  BERKELEY 


